1^^ 


HISTORY  OF  JOURNALISM 
IN  THE  UNITED  STATES 


BY 

GEORGE  HENRY  PAYNE 


D.  APPLETON  AND  COMPANY 
NEW  YORK  LONDON 

1920 


q  \4' 


COFYRIGHT^   102C,  BY 

D.  APPLETON  AND  COMPANY 


PRINTED    IN    THE    UNITED    STATES    OP    AMERICA 


TO 

THE  MEMORY  OF 

THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

WHO  UNDERSTOOD  THE   NEWSPAPER  — 
AND  NEWSPAPERMEN 


5058^,0 


PREFACE 

Man  frequently  knows  little  about  the  phases  of  exist- 
ence with  which  he  comes  into  daily  contact.  As  fre- 
quently he  is  not  even  curious  regarding  them.  He  tele- 
phones for  a  taxicab,  is  whisked  to  a  labyrinthine  ter- 
minal in  time  to  catch  an  express,  which  clanks  across 
viaducts  conjured  up  by  engineering's  sheerest  magic  — 
usually  without  query  save  that  prompted  by  solicitude  for 
his  comfort  of  the  moment.  Man  goes,  comes,  and  eter- 
nally accepts,  en  route.  His,  for  the  most  part,  is  a  post 
facto  viewpoint.  Effect  is  what  really  concerns  him. 
He  is  likely  to  be  bored  by  those  who  expound  cause. 

Among  the  commonest  and  least  comprehended  in- 
gredients of  living  is  the  daily  newspaper.  More  power- 
ful than  public  school  or  college,  more  vitally  affecting 
destiny  than  all  the  churches  of  all  the  sects,  it  thrusts  its 
well  or  ill  conceived  messages  into  the  homes  and  minds 
of  the  millions.  Coral  like,  it  has  reared  itself  into  an 
all  encircling  reef,  upon  which  beats  the  tidal  wave  of 
world  politics  or  laps  the  insignificant  ripple  of  village 
chatter.  The  roar  of  the  tidal  wave  and  the  lap  of  the 
ripple  are  what  men  think  they  hear.  Actually  they  do 
not.  What  one  hears  is  the  note  of  the  reef  —  the  news- 
paper.    Wherefore  let  us  consider  its  beginnings. 

Never  have  citizens  needed  more  urgently  an  under- 
standing of  the  genesis  and  development  of  journals 
which  —  although  they  may  deny  it  —  shape  their  trend 
of  thought,  their  ethics  and  tastes,  and  their  interest  in 

the  matter  of  national  honor.     To  review  compactly  the 

Tii 


Vlll 


PREFACE 


pedigree  of  American  journalism,  detachedly  and  simply, 
has  been  the  intent  of  Mr.  Payne.     He  has  done  it. 

This  book  may  well  prove  to  be  profitable  reading  for 
earnest  and  careless  alike  —  both  perforce  are  members 
of  the  great  army  of  newspaper  consumers.  It  will  re- 
pay, amply,  snatched  perusal  in  the  city  room  of  any 
Park  Row  between  assignments  —  how  many  reporters 
can  pass  a  genuine  test  in  the  fundamentals  of  a  profes- 
sion into  which  they  are  putting  even  more  of  themselves 
than  their  fellows  of  the  law  and  medicine?  Finally,  it 
will  be  worth  a  great  deal  to  students  in  the  schools  of 
journalism,  so  rapidly  increasing  throughout  the  country. 
For  seven  years  I  have  watched  mature  minded  young 
men  and  women  leave  Morningside  to  help  get  and  write 
the  news  you  and  I  read.  They  and  their  sort  must  know 
the  background  of  their  craft.  A  decade  ago  one  em- 
barked upon  a  newspaper  career  in  an  almost  jocund 
spirit  of  adventure.  The  jocund  spirit  and  the  flavor  of 
adventure  will  persist,  but  let  us  carry  with  us  the  records 
and  the  maps  —  old  fashioned  though  they  be  —  of  the 
pioneers,  strong  and  weak  alike,  who  made  the  news- 
paper of  to-day  possible. 

Robert  Emmet  MacAlarney 

Columbia  University 


INTRODUCTION 

*'  Democracy,"  says  John  Morley,  "  has  come  to  mean 
government  by  public  opinion."  Like  democracy  itself, 
public  opinion  is  a  new  power  which  has  come  into  the 
world  since  the  Middle  Ages.  ''  In  fact,"  declared  E.  L. 
Godkin,  *'  it  is  safe  to  say,  that  before  the  French  Revo- 
lution nothing  of  the  kind  was  known  or  dreamt  of  in 
Europe.  There  was  a  certain  truth  in  Louis  XIV's  state- 
ment, which  now  seems  so  droll,  that  he  was  himself  the 
state.  Public  opinion  was  HIS  opinion.  In  England,  it 
may  be  said  wath  equal  safety,  there  was  nothing  that 
could  be  called  public  opinion,  in  the  modern  sense,  before 
the  passage  of  the  Reform  Bill."  ^ 

Mr.  Godkin,  however,  ignored  the  fact  that,  as  early 
as  1738,  Joseph  Danvers  rose  in  the  House  of  Parlia- 
ment and  declared  that  Great  Britain  was  then  being  gov- 
erned by  a  power  "  that  never  was  heard  of  as  a  supreme 
authority  in  any  age  or  country  before  ...  it  is  the  gov- 
ernment of  the  press."  ^ 

Before  England  knew  of  this  power,  this  new  author- 
ity, it  was  established  in  America.  De  Tocqueville 
thought  he  saw,  in  the  first  Puritan  who  landed  on  these 
shores,  the  embodiment  of  democracy,  but  it  was  in  the 
acquittal  of  the  printer  John  Peter  Zenger  in  1734  that 
the  first  evidence  of  government  by  public  opinion 
triumphant  was  given.     The  law  was  against  him  and 

1  Unforeseen  Tendencies  of  Democracy. 
^Parliamentary  History,  x,  448. 

ix 


X  INTRODUCTION 

legal  precedents  pointed  to  his  conviction,  but  his  lawyer 
appealed  from  the  law  to  public  opinion  and  the  result 
was  his  acquittal  — "  the  dawn  of  the  Revolution." 

The  ideal  of  government  by  public  opinion  has  been 
more  nearly  achieved  in  this  country  than  elsewhere. 
With  all  the  faults  that  foreign  critics  see  in  our  govern- 
ment, it  is  admitted  that,  from  the  beginning,  we  have 
moved  steadily  toward  that  ideal.  From  De  Tocqueville 
to  Bryce,  the  critics  have  found  only  those  faults  that  are 
in  themselves  the  result  of  inactive  public  opinion.  De 
Tocqueville's  fear  that  the  rights  of  minorities  would  be 
ignored  has  been  proved  groundless.  In  democracy  or 
in  a  government  by  public  opinon,  minorities  are  as  pow- 
erful as  they  are  right.  Our  greatest  reforms  are  the 
work  of  minorities,  our  greatest  advances  the  triumph  of 
the  far-seeing  few.  The  American  Revolution  itself  was 
a  minority  movement,  and  it  was  successful  only  when 
public  opinion  was  aroused.  Mill's  doubts  before  the 
Civil  War  about  the  evil  effect  of  slavery,  as  well  as 
Bryce's  just  criticism  of  our  municipal  government,  have 
all  been  answered  as  public  opinion  has  been  aroused. 

To  assume  that  government  by  public  opinion  would  be 
perfect  would  be  to  assume  that  man  is  perfect.  At  times 
the  student  may  be  disheartened  or  the  philosopher  dis- 
mayed, but,  as  long  as  the  sovereign  power  rests  with 
the  people  and  the  people  are  civilized,  there  is  bound 
to  be  progress,  for  democracy  itself  is  as  positive  a  sign 
of  evolution  as  is  religion. 

Those  who  regard  democracy  with  misgiving  are  gen- 
erally those  who  are  more  interested  in  man's  written 
record  than  in  man's  place  in  nature.  The  entire  recorded 
progress  constitutes  but  the  most  superficial  part  of  man's 
entire  development.  Assuming  the  human  race  to  be 
240,000  years  old,  and  accepting  the  most  generous  fig- 


INTRODUCTION  xi 

ures  on  Egyptian  and  Mesopotamian  civilization,  civilized 
man  has  existed  only  ten  thousand  years,  or  one-two  hun- 
dred and  fortieth  part  of  the  life  of  the  human  species. 
It  is  only  in  the  last  two  hundred  years  that  there  has 
been  a  definite  concept  as  to  progress,  unless  one  wishes 
to  accept  the  gropings  of  Heraclitus  and  Lucretius  as 
part  of  man's  evolution  toward  an  understanding  of  him- 
self. How  feeble  then  seem  those  doubts  as  to  the  future, 
when  one  contemplates  the  inevitable  forces  that  are 
working  toward  man's  progress! 

That  men  will  not  easily  be  led  from  the  lines  of  their 
accustomed  thought,  born  of  the  instincts  for  immediate 
comfort  and  domination,  is  inevitable.  For  years  we 
were  in  the  habit  of  regarding  the  Middle  Ages  as  great 
periods  of  darkness,  when  the  human  race  went  to  sleep. 
We  know  now  that  scholarship  was  kept  alive  by  the 
very  monks  who  were  formerly  accused  of  strangling 
thought,  and  that  the  races  that  were  then  being  slowly 
civilized  were  destined  to  give  to  humanity  some  of  its 
greatest  blessings.  So  when  democracies  seem  to  turn 
over,  and  the  will  of  the  people  seems  to  be  thwarted;  or 
when,  as  frequently  happens,  some  particular  community 
refuses  to  respond  to  the  call  of  those  who  assume  that 
they  have  the  greater  vision,  it  is  well  to  remember  that 
the  march  of  humanity's  progress  is  as  imperceptible  as 
is  the  motion  of  the  earth  to  those  distant  cousins  of 
ours  who  still  go  on  all-fours. 

Since  Turgot  wrote  his  memorable  essay  on  progress, 
we  have  learned  to  look  on  man's  state  as  progressive  so 
long  as  there  is  a  development  in  man's  intelligence. 
The  moral  sentiments,  whether  of  utilitarian  origin  or 
not,  are  great  factors  in  developing  man's  intelligence, 
and  in  turn  intelligence  develops  the  moral  sentiments. 
So,  where  there  is  an  intelligent  people  there  will  be  a 


xn  INTRODUCTION 

will  to  be  free,  and  where  there  is  a  will  to  be  free  there 
will  be  a  desire  to  be  right. 

The  development  of  democracy  in  America  is  one  of 
the  greatest  examples  in  recorded  history  of  this  law  of 
progress  —  the  triumph  of  democracy  has  always  been 
the  triumph  of  the  moral  sentiments. 

How  far  democracy  developed  journalism  and  how  far 
journalism  developed  democracy  is  an  interesting  ques- 
tion. That  the  democracy  of  ancient  Greece,  limited 
monarchy  that  it  was,  existed  without  journalism  is 
true.  But  government  was  local  and  dealt  purely  with 
the  affairs  of  those  residing  within  the  dema;  the  com- 
munity being  small,  and  the  Greeks  being  a  garrulous  and 
politically  developed  people,  they  were  able  by  word  of 
mouth  to  keep  track  of  their  affairs.  As  soon  as  the 
government  stretched  out  it  became,  not  a  democracy 
but  a  tyranny. 

What  is  plainly  evident  is  that  the  printing  press  was 
invented  at  a  time  when  people  were  becoming  restive. 
They  had  progressed  to  a  point  where  they  were  no  longer 
satisfied  with  the  old  servitude.  Once  given  an  inven- 
tion by  which  man's  thoughts  might  be  communicated  to 
others  with  a  minimum  of  labor  and  expense,  journalism 
was  inevitable.  The  humblest  effort  to  make  it  effective, 
such  as  that  of  Benjamin  Harris,  thus  becomes  an  im- 
portant page  in  our  history. 

Indifference  to  the  history  of  journalism  has  been 
ascribed  to  the  fact  that  research  into  those  departments 
of  knowledge  that  do  not  lead  to  an  academic  career  is 
usually  neglected.  That  comparatively  few  writers  have 
been  attracted  to  the  subject  is  all  the  more  remarkable 
in  view  of  the  fact  that  it  is  over  a  hundred  and  fifty 
years  since  the  press  in  this  country  began  to  assume 
political   functions.     While  the  early  historians  entirely 


INTRODUCTION  xiii 

neglected  this  phase  of  our  development,  later  writers 
have  touched  on  it,  but  always  most  inadequately. 

*'  Newspaper  government,"  says  the  historian  Rhodes, 
''  we  have  with  us,  and  it  must  be  reckoned  with  " ;  yet 
little  attempt  has  been  made  to  investigate  the  origin  of 
the  political  power  of  the  new  estate. 

At  a  time  when  journalism  has  risen  to  the  dignity  of 
an  academic  career, —  a  time  when  it  is  conceded  that  it 
represents,  if  it  does  not  furnish,  the  public  opinion  that 
makes  and  unmakes  governments, —  an  inquiry  as  to  its 
origin  and  development  as  a  political  power  would  seem 
to  be,  at  least,  labor  not  wasted.  It  is  proposed  in  this 
book  to  trace  the  development  of  that  power  as  it  lies  in 
the  story  of  journalistic  development. 

It  is  recognized  that  this  is  only  one  of  the  many 
aspects  from  which  journalism  may  be  studied.  A  Ger- 
man economist,  calling  attention  to  the  fact  that  the 
history  of  journalism  has  been  a  neglected  study,  declared 
that  it  is  a  study  of  the  most  direct  concern  to  the  po- 
litical economist,  for  the  reason  that  the  newspaper  was 
*'  primarily  a  commercial  economic  contrivance  forming 
one  of  the  most  important  pillars  of  contemporary 
economic  activities."  ^  Such  a  view  is  not  justified  by  a 
research  into  American  journalism,  for  we  find  that  it  is 
in  affecting  political  results  that  its  representatives  have 
been  most  successful. 

The  history  of  journalism  in  America  cannot  be 
separated  from  the  development  of  the  democratic  idea. 
The  very  first  editor  in  this  country,  the  forgotten  and 
neglected  Benjamin  Harris,  in  all  his  interesting  struggles 
represented  that  idea,  for  his  fight  was  for  freedom  of 
expression,  the  very  essence  of  democracy.  With  us 
democracy  has  come  to  mean  sovereignty  of  the  whole 

3  Buecher,  Industrial  Evolution,  p.  216. 


XIV  INTRODUCTION 

body  of  the  people;  the  achievement  of  that  sovereignty- 
was  of  the  slowest  development,  and  frequently  the  battle 
was  made  nowhere  else  thaii  in  the  meagre  and  forgotten 
journals. 

To  journalism,  then,  democracy  owes,  not  only  its 
strength  but,  in  whole  or  in  part,  all  of  its  important 
victories.  No  political  advance  has  been  made  in  this 
country  without  the  aid  of  the  press ;  all  of  our  democratic 
achievements  have  been  accomplished  with  the  help  of 
men  who  were,  in  the  beginning,  regarded  as  mere  me- 
chanics, poor  printers,  or  who  were,  in  later  periods, 
grudgingly  given  credit  and  political  recognition  as  the 
representatives  of  a  not  entirely  welcome  social  and  po- 
litical phenomenon. 

Journalism,  in  turn,  owes  to  democracy  its  enjoyment 
of  enormous  privileges,  its  practical  admission  into  the 
government.  In  the  preliminary  skirmishes  for  liberty 
in  this  country,  the  people  found  that  the  free  press 
was  a  powerful  weapon  by  which  they  were  able  to  wrest 
from  tyranny  the  power  of  government.  They  found 
that  through  the  press  they  could  keep  their  own 
phalanxes  compact,  a  difficult  task  in  a  country  spread 
over  the  great  area  of  the  thirteen  colonies. 

"  A  free  press  "  became  their  shibboleth.  When  a  na- 
tion was  bom  and  the  political  thought  of  the  philoso- 
phers of  the  eighteenth  century  had  taken  root,  it  was  the 
press  that  made  the  battle  for  the  extension  of  the  suf- 
frage and  that  wrested  from  the  minority  the  power 
which,  in  a  democracy,  must  be  with  the  people.  The 
abolition  movement,  variously  explained,  was  a  develop- 
ment of  the  democratic  idea.  What  the  statesmen  of  that 
time  failed  to  realize  was  that  there  could  not  exist  in  a 
democracy  a  class,  such  as  the  slaveholders,  claiming  to 
have  property  rights  in  human  beings.     The  press  that 


INTRODUCTION  xv 

took  up  the  cause  of  the  negroes  did  not  represent  the 
black  men;  it  was  impelled  to  action  by  the  moral  sense 
of  those  who  had  recently  achieved  sovereignty  and  who, 
subconsciously  perhaps,  acted  as  much  for  their  own  pro- 
tection as  for  the  betterment  of  the  blacks.  The  low 
condition  to  which  the  poor  whites  were  sinking  at  the 
South  shows  that  a  condition  worse  than  slavery  was 
possible,  if  the  right  to  own  human  beings  were  not 
abolished. 

Thus  the  development  of  democracy  meant  increase 
of  the  power  of  journalism.  Strange  and  crude  were 
the  instruments  of  this  journalism,  it  is  true,  but  elegance 
and  refinement  are  characteristic  of  neither  biologic  nor 
social  evolution.  The  manners  of  men  are  rude,  and,  as 
journalism  developed, —  as  a  more  or  less  illegitimate  or 
"poor  white"  brother  of  literature, —  it  was  subjected, 
helpfully  in  most  cases,  it  is  true,  to  criticism  either  by 
those  who  had  little  interest  in  the  political  significance  or 
by  those  who  were  politically  and  socially  opposed  to  the 
purposes  to  be  achieved. 

Strange  instruments,  as  I  have  said,  appeared  in  the 
course  of  this  development.  The  elder  Bennett  and  the 
Herald,  as  it  was  edited  for  years,  would  hardly  seem 
the  agents  of  either  a  moral  or  political  development. 
Yet,  distasteful  as  were  many  of  his  early  exploits,  and 
immoral  as  was  his  espousal  of  the  slavery  cause  for 
purely  commercial  reasons,  the  elder  Bennett  did  the 
country  and  democracy  a  great  service,  for  he  caused 
people  to  read  newspapers  in  large  numbers.  He  gave 
them  news  of  events  that  lay  about  them  daily,  and  of 
which  they  had  little  consciousness ;  he  interested  them  in 
themselves  and  their  fellow  beings,  he  quickened  their 
sense  of  life,  thereby  increasing  their  political  powder. 

History  is  often  read  in  terms  superimposed  by  men 


XVI  INTRODUCTION 

with  no  sympathy  for  the  story  they  are  unfolding. 
The  story  of  the  evolution  of  such  an  institution  as 
journalism  should  have  very  little  to  do  v^ith  questions  of 
taste  or  literature,  except  as  they  hindered  or  assisted 
the  objects  for  which  the  journalist  strove.  Of  all  the 
editors  in  America,  Bryant  was  pre-eminently  literary, 
yet  his  influence  was  never  so  great  as  that  of  Bennett; 
even  among  the  literary  class  he  never  achieved  such  in- 
fluence and  power  as  did  Godkin,  who  wrote  not  a  single 
poem. 

We  have  spoken  of  journalism  as  the  poor  white 
brother  of  literature,  a  despised  relative.  In  these  later 
days  it  has  become,  with  the  impetus  of  being  accepted 
as  offering  an  academic  career,  something  more ;  it  might 
now  be  described  as  literature  in  action, —  action  first  and 
action  last.  The  artist  may  achieve  success  in  journalism, 
as  Dana  did,  but  he  must  first  be  a  man  of  action.  The 
journalist  must  first  see  the  truth,  he  must  be  one  who  is 
not  deceived  by  the  lie. 

To  tell  such  a  story  and  to  outline  properly  the  rela- 
tions of  the  press  to  government  and  to  the  people  has 
necessitated  a  somewhat  compact  marshaling  of  a  world 
of  facts,  the  importance  of  which  has  been,  not  that  they 
have  been  unrelated  before,  but  that  they  show  how  re- 
sistless has  been  the  law  of  advancement.  The  career  of 
Benjamin  Harris  has  been  set  forth  in  as  careful  detail 
as  research  would  permit;  this  seems  necessary  if  we  are 
to  understand  journalism's  very  beginning,  a  beginning 
that  makes  luminous  the  struggle  of  Zenger  and  those 
patriots  who  made  the  Revolution  possible. 

The  mere  fact  that  Harris'  name  seemingly  passed  into 
oblivion  does  not  mean  that  his  influence  was  naught. 
Although  directly,  that  influence  was  little,  it  was  great 
in  an  indirect  way,  for  the  James  Franklin  who  came 


INTRODUCTION  xvii 

back  to  Boston  in  17 19,  to  be  the  spokesman  of  the 
"  Hell-Fire  Club,"  that  first  organization  of  liberals, 
brought  back  with  him  from  London  a  spirit  that  was  as 
directly  traceable  to  Harris  and  the  other  pioneers  of 
journalism  as  the  independent  spirit  of  the  pre-Revolu- 
tionary  editors  was  traceable  to  Zenger.  And  as  Zenger 
leads  to  Sam  Adams,  Adams  leads  to  Jefferson  and 
Hamilton  and  Duane  and  Coleman;  Bennett  to  Greeley 
and  Pulitzer  to  Hearst,  a  certain  inevitableness  marking 
the  progress  of  the  story. 


CONTENTS 

CHAPTER  PAGE 

PREFACE • Vii 

INTRODUCTION ix 

I    Historic  Preparation  for  Journalism i 

II    The  First  Newspaper  in  America 12 

III  The  First  Journals  and  Their  Editors  ....    23 

IV  Philadelphia  and  the  Bradfords 35 

V  Printing  in  New  York  —  The  Zenger  Trial      .     .    45 

VI    Rise  of  Fourth  Estate 59 

VII  The  Assumption  of  Political  Power    .     .     .     .     .76 

VIII  The  "Boston  Gazette"  and  Samuel  Adams  ...  100 

IX    Journalism  and  the  Revolution 116 

X    After  the  Revolution 135 

XI    Growth  of  Party  Press 153 

XII    The  Editor  and  the  Government 164 

XIII  Adams  and  the  Alien  and  Sedition  Laws      .     .     .  176  , 

XIV  Hamilton  and  the  "  Evening  Post  " 190 

XV  Emigration  and  the  Papers  of  the  West  ....  200 

XVI    Suffrage  and  Slavery 217 

XVII    Newspapers  and  the  Capital 230 

XVIII  Penny  Papers  and  the  "  New  York  Sun  "...  240 

XIX  James  Gordon  Bennett  and  the  "  Herald  "...  255 

XX    Greeley  and  the  "Tribune" 269 

XXI  The  "Times"  and  Greeley's  Triumph      .     .     .     .282 

XXII    The  Autocracy  of  the  Slaveholders 295 

XXIII    Civil  War 307 


XX  CONTENTS 

CHAPTER  *AGE 

XXIV  After  the  War 325 

XXV  Editors  of  the  New  School 336 

XXVI  After- War  Problems  and  Reform 347 

XXVII  The  Melodrama  in  the  News 360 

XXVIII  Conclusion       37o 

APPENDICES 

A  —  The  Beginning  of  "  Newes  " 383 

B  —  The  Character  of  William  Bradford      .     .     .  384 

C  —  Bryant  Index  Expurgatorius 386 

D  —  Horace  Greeley's  Famous  Letter  to  William 

H.  Seward 387 

E  —  Growth  of  Newspapers  from  1776  to  1840  .     .  393 

F — Statistics  of  the  Daily  and  Weekly  News- 
papers IN  the  U.  S.  in  1840 394 

G  —  Newspaper  Postage  Rates  for  One  Year     .     .  396 

H  —  Zenger's  Trial 397 

I  —  The  Sun-Herald  Merger 398 

Bibliography 399 

Index 4^9 


HISTORY  OF  JOURNALISM 
IN  THE  UNITED  STATES 


HISTORY  OF  JOURNALISM 

CHAPTER    I 

HISTORIC  PREPARATION  FOR  JOURNALISM 

Mayflower  leader  a  printer  —  Democracy  and  the  press  —  In- 
terest in  the  "  newes  " —  PubHc  opinion  vs.  EngHsh  govern- 
ment—  Persecution  of  authors  and  printers  in  England  — 
L'Estrange,  first  licensor  of  the  press  —  First  newspaper  in 
English  —  English  politics  reflected  in  New  England  —  Print- 
ing in  Boston  —  Political  development  affecting  publication. 

Among  the  one  hundred  and  two  passengers  on  the 
Mayflower,  which  brought  to  this  country  in  1620  the 
first  body  of  men  who  were  to  give  to  the  American  na- 
tion its  character  and  tendency,  was  William  Brewster. 
In  addition  to  being  the  spiritual  guide  of  the  little  group, 
Brewster  had  the  experience,  unusual  in  those  days,  of 
having  been  a  practical  printer.  A  man  of  education,  he 
had  been  sent  to  jail  for  his  religious  beliefs,  and  with 
others  of  his  faith  had  sought  refuge  in  Holland.  He 
had  procured  a  printing  press  and  in  Leyden,  where  the 
press  was  untrammeled,  had  published  a  number  of  books 
attacking  the  English  authorities. 

The  day  before  the  Pilgrims  landed,  they  drew  up,  in 
the  cabin  of  the  Mayflower,  their  celebrated  agreement, 
based  on  the  idea  of  equal  rights  for  the  general  good  — 
"  The  birth  of  popular  constitutional  liberty,"  Bancroft 
calls  it.  In  any  case,  it  was  the  first  expression  of  the 
democratic  idea  toward  which  humanity  had  been  pain- 
fully toiling  for  centuries. 


2  HISTORY  CF  JC>URNALISM 

These  two  facts  are  important  in  the  history  of  journal- 
ism. 

The  greatest  of  all  liberties,  it  is  said,  is  the  liberty  of 
opinion.  Within  a  comparatively  few  years  of  the  May- 
flowers saiHng,  there  had  come,  following  the  revival  of 
learning  and  the  development  of  the  art  of  printing,  an 
impetus  toward  freedom  of  expression  such  as  the  pre- 
vious centuries  had  never  known.  How  much  the  demo- 
cratic idea  —  the  democratic  tendency  that  came  with 
Christianity  —  owes  to  printing  and  how  much  the  in- 
vention of  printing  owes  to  the  growth  of  this  idea  is 
one  of  those  nicely  balanced  questions  that  is  not  to  be 
entered  into  here. 

In  ''  De  Natura  Deorum,"  Cicero  put  forth  the  idea  of 
printing  books,  but  there  the  idea  rested  for  centuries. 
It  was  the  fact  that  the  world  was  stirring  in  the  fifteenth 
century  and  that  the  revival  of  learning  had  brought 
about  a  demand  for  books,  on  the  part  of  those  who  were 
not  able  to  afford  the  great  vellum  manuscripts,  that 
brought  the  printing  press.  It  has  been  observed  that  the 
processes  used  in  the  printing  press  "  are  as  old  as  the 
first  medal  which  was  ever  struck." 

We  know  that  the  Romans  could  have  invented  the 
printing  press,  and  probably  would  have,  were  it  not  that 
slave  labor  satisfied  their  wants.  ^  There  was  among 
them  the  demand  for  publication;  Dionysius  of  Halicar- 
nassus  tells  of  "  thousands  "  of  writers  on  the  subject  of 
Roman  History  alone,  and  Martial  reports  that  copies  o'f'\ 
his  *'  Epigrams  "  sold  for  six  sestertii,  less  than  the  cost 
of  a  book  to-day.  But  slave  labor  took  the  place  of  the 
printing  press,  and  the  ingrained  belief  that  reading  as 
well  as  thinking  belonged  to  the  ruling  class  rendered 

iH.  M.  Alden,  "Why  the  Ancients  had  no  Printing  Press,"  in 
Harpers  Monthly,  Vol.  XXXVII,  p.  397. 


HISTORIC  PREPARATI9>J;  FOR .  JOURNAttSM        3 

the    great    organ    of    modern    civilization    unnecessary. 

But  the  printing  press  came  to  awaken  man  to  his  pos- 
sibiHties  —  the  philosophies  of  the  ages  sweeping  down 
into  the  great  under  mass  to  awaken  them  to  manhood  — 
and  one  of  the  first  evidences  that  the  apparently  inert 
majority,  lying  under  the  governmental  impact,  were 
shaking  off  the  lethargy  of  brutedom,  was  the  interest  in 
'*  Newes,"  itself  a  new  word. 

As  early  as  1561  we  find  references  to  doggerel  reports 
of  recent  events  that  were  being  printed  under  the  title  of 
"  Newes  out  of  Kent "  and  "  Newes  out  of  Heaven  and 
Hell,"  and  during  the  reign  of  Elizabeth,  papers  were 
printed  giving  news  of  the  time  in  order  to  keep  the  peo- 
ple interested  in  the  defense  of  the  realm. ^  This  was  a 
development  of  the  written  news-letter,  which  had  its 
origin  in  the  idea  of  keeping  the  wealthy  informed,  just 
as  the  wealthy  Romans  were  kept  informed  by  letters 
from  Rome.^  But  we  must  look  to  the  end  of  the  reign 
of  James  the  First,  says  the  Harleian  manuscribe,  for  the 
time  w^hen  "  news  began  to  be  in  fashion."  ^  The  first 
attempt  to  treat  of  the  general  ''newes,"  in  a  regular 
series  of  newspapers,  issued  weekly,  was  when  Nathaniel 
Butters,  acknowledged  father  of  the  newspaper,  brought 
out  in  London,  on  May  23,  1622,  the  first  issue  of  the 
Weekly  Newes.  This  was  followed  by  the  establish- 
ment, here  and  there  throughout  Europe,  of  the  Gazettes, 
intended  in  the  beginning  for  the  merchants  and  courts, 
but  soon  to  pass  into  the  hands  of  those  far  removed  from 
Kings  and  Courts. 

2  For  account  of  the  interesting  forgery  of  a  newspaper  in  Eliza- 
beth's time,  see  Disraeli's  Curiosities  of  Literature;  Andrews,  His- 
tory of  British  Journalism,  Vol.  I,  p.  22;  Chalmers,  Life  of  Ruddi- 
man,  p.  114,     See  Appendix,  Note  A. 

3  See  Cicero  and  Horace. 
*  See  Appendix,  Note  A. 


4  '-HIRTGRY  OF  JOURNALISM 

The  men  who  came  to  this  country  on  the  Mayflower 
were  men  who,  with  their  forbears,  had  bfeen  furnishing 
England  with  much  news  long  before  they  set  sail.  They 
were,  in  the  main,  of  the  mass  of  people.  They  were 
men  who  had  been  persecuted,  who  had  suffered,  who  had 
been  jailed  in  England  for  their  principles  and  for  striv- 
ing for  their  liberty,  though  they  had  little  in  common 
with  the  Barons  who  through  Magna  Charta  had  wrested 
from  the  Crown  the  power  of  absolute  rule. 

These  Puritan  insurrectionists  had  been  nurtured  by 
the  printing  press.  Beginning  with  the  struggle  to  hold 
religious  views  that  were  interdicted  by  the  government, 
they  had  broadened  gradually  into  unconscious  exponents 
of  free  government;  and  the  government,  seeing  that  it 
was  from  the  press  that  they  had  gained  courage  and 
boldness,  subjected  the  press  to  a  rigorous  censorship, 
printing  being  forbidden,  save  in  London,  Oxford  and 
Cambridge,  as  far  back  as  Queen  Elizabeth's  time. 

When  Brewster  and  his  flock  first  left  England,  they 
went  to  Leyden,  where,  as  in  no  other  place  in  Europe, 
there  were  free  schools,  and  where,  as  Motley  says,^ 
"  every  child  went  to  school,  where  almost  every  individ- 
ual inhabitant  could  read  and  write,  where  even  the  mid- 
dle classes  were  proficient  in  mathematics  and  the  classics 
and  could  speak  two  or  more  modem  languages."  Camp- 
bell says,  that  during  the  sixteenth  century  "  this  little 
country  published  more  books  than  the  rest  of  Europe 
put  together,  and  while  England  was  suppressing  and 
censoring  the  press,  the  author  here  was  free  to  express 
his  thoughts  so  long  as  he  committed  no  libel  and  wrote 
nothing  to  offend  the  public  morals."  ^ 

8  History  of  the  United  Netherlands,  Vol.  IV,  p.  137- 
«  Campbell,  The  Puritan  in  Holland,  England  and  America,  Vol. 
n,  p.  343;  Rogers,  Story  of  Holland,  p.  220. 


HISTORIC  PREPARATION  FOR  JOURNALISM        5 

When  these  Pilgrims  landed  in  America,  the  great 
wilderness  that  was  to  take  centuries  to  subdue,  they  had, 
in  the  fact  of  Brewster's  apprenticeship  and  the  compact 
referred  to,  the  germ  of  the  free  press  and  the  journalism 
that  was  to  become  a  world  factor  in  humanity's  devel- 
opment. 

It  was  not  until  1639  that  the  first  printing  press  was 
imported  into  this  country;  even  then  the  settlers  were 
living  under  such  conditions  of  savagery  as  England  had 
not  known  for  nearly  a  thousand  years. 

Wilderness  that  it  was,  these  Pilgrims  had  brought  with 
them  very  definite  ideas,  many  of  them  gained  during  the 
sojourn  in  Holland;  while  in  many  respects  they  were 
still  only  keeping  pace  with  those  of  their  class  in  England 
in  intellectual  growth,  they  were  far  advanced  in  politi- 
cal thought.  A  small  community  of  not  more  than  a 
few  thousand  was  more  easily  influenced  than  the  popu- 
lation of  the  thickly  settled  country  whence  they  came. 
Such  an  event,  therefore,  as  the  founding  of  Harvard 
University  and  the  legacy  of  Brewster's  library,  in  which 
there  were  eight  books  that  he  himself  had  published  in 
Leyden,  was  bound  to  have  its  influence  on  the  intelligent 
section  of  the  public  mind.  Not  only  were  those  in  the 
colony  affected  by  these  and  similar  evidences  of  liberal 
thought,  but  the  character  of  immigration  was  affected,  as 
we  see  from  the  fact  that  between  1630  and  1647,  one 
hundred  university  men  came  to  New  England  from  the 
continent.  Such  immigration  could  not  do  otherwise  than 
broaden  the  current. 

New  England,  however,  was  still  a  colony  under  the 
rule  of  the  mother  country,  and  was  still  greatly  influ- 
enced by  the  thoughts  of  those  Englishmen  who  had  re- 
mained on  the  other  side.  A  second  printing  press  was 
brought  over  in  1660.     Two  years  later,  with  only  two 


6  HISTORY  OF  JOURNALISM 

presses  in  the  colony,  the  Government  of  Massachusetts, 
following  the  example  of  the  mother  country,  appointed 
a  licensor  of  the  press,  and  in  1664  ^  l^w  was  passed 
permitting  printing  only  in  Cambridge,  and  then  only  by 
those  licensed. 

In  the  time  elapsing  between  the  sailing  of  the  May- 
flozver  and  the  establishment  of  the  censorship,  a  little 
more  than  forty  years,  the  folks  in  the  colonies  had  been 
hearing  of  strange  happenings  at  home.  Journalism  in 
England  had  been  born.  The  first  newspaper.  The 
Weekly  Newes,  had  appeared,  but  at  a  time  when  au- 
thors, printers  and  importers  of  prohibited  books  were 
being  subjected  to  the  most  barbarous  persecutions,  treat- 
ment that  recalled  to  the  Pilgrims  the  conditions  that  had 
driven  them  to  Holland. 

Despite  all  persecutions,  the  fight  in  England  was  on 
in  bitter  earnest.  More  than  thirty  thousand  political 
pamphlets  and  ''  newspapers  "  were  issued  between  1640 
and  the  Restoration,  two  thousand  bound  volumes  of 
which  are  now  to  be  found  in  the  British  Museum."^ 

While  Charles  the  Second  was  a  less  vindictive  persecu- 
tor of  the  press  than  either  his  grandfather  or  his  father 
had  been,  he  had  to  deal  with  a  refractory  Parliament, 
without  which  the  beginning  of  journalism  would  never 
have  been  written  in  the  seventeenth  century.  It  was  a 
period,  too,  which  saw  the  rise  of  political  parties  in 
England,  the  Whigs  and  the  Tories.  Both  upheld  the 
monarchy,  but  the  Whigs  stood  for  the  limitation  of  au- 
thority within  the  law,  w^hile  the  Tories  were  for  abso- 
lutism in  both  Church  and  State.^ 

It  was  in  his  desire  to  cope  with  the  growing  evil  of 

■^  See   Knight's   Old  Printer  and  Modern  Press,  also   Disraeli's 
Curiosities. 
®  May,  Constitutional  History  of  England,  Vol.  II,  p.  21. 


HIS'TORIC  PREPARATION  FOR  JOURNALISM        7 

publication  and  the  free  press  that  King  Charles  fanned 
the  flames  that  he  would  fain  have  quenched.  He  ap- 
pointed, in  1663,  Sir  Roger  L'Estrange  as  licensor  of  the 
press  and  surveyor  of  the  printing  offices. 

Americans  are  not  accustomed  to  think  of  this  re- 
markable cavalier  and  journalist  as  connected  with  the 
newspaper  history  of  this  country;  yet  connected  he  is  in 
the  most  interesting  way  —  directly  through  Benjamin 
Harris,  as  we  shall  see  in  another  chapter,  and  indirectly 
through  his  persecutions  and  general  whacking  of  heads, 
both  of  editors  and  publishers,  toughening  the  fiber  of 
those  who  were  founding  the  Fourth  Estate,  and  provid- 
ing examples  of  heroism  for  those  editors  in  this  country 
who  in  their  turn  w^ent  to  jail  as  part  of  the  routine  of  a 
not  over-respected  profession. 

It  was  L'Estrange  who  was  selected  to  answer  Milton's 
"  Areopagitica,"  which  he  did  under  the  brutal  title,  ''  No 
Blind  Guides  Needed,"  a  fair  sample  of  his  wit.  From 
pamphleteer  he  became,  on  his  appointment  as  licensor  of 
the  press,  a  full-fledged  journalist,  issuing  in  1663  the 
Public  Intelligencer.  For  this  posterity  is  indebted  to 
him,  for  an  able  journalist  he  was;  considering  that  his 
business  was  to  suppress  printing  and  prosecute  printers, 
he  set  about  it  in  the  very  best  way  calculated  to  encour- 
age the  one  and  stiffen  the  other. 

The  Public  Intelligencer  gave  way  in  1665  to  the  Lon- 
don Ga:::ette,  the  first  oflicial  newspaper  in  English,  a 
purely  governmental  publication,  containing  in  the  most 
meager  and  formal  fashion  such  news  as  the  government 
wished  to  publish.  But  the  damage  was  done,  for  what 
the  government  could  do  others  could  do,  and  despite  the 
licensor,  pillories  and  prisons,  the  printers  became  busy 
with  their  defense  of  a  free  press  and  popular  rights. 
When  it  is  realized  that  thirty  thousand  of  these  pam- 


8  HISTORY  OF  JOURNALISM 

phlets  were  printed  in  a  comparatively  few  years,  it  is  seen 
that  they  were  no  mean  workers. 

The  Licensing  Act,  which  had  been  passed  shortly  after 
the  accession  of  Charles  II,  expired  in  1679,  and  for  a 
short  while  several  newspapers  —  the  Protestant  Intelli- 
gence, the  True  Nezvs,  etc. —  were  published  by  the 
Whigs,  but  the  twelve  justices,  under  Chief  Justice 
Scroggs,  declared  that  it  was  a  criminal  act  at  common 
law  to  publish  any  political  news  without  the  King's  li- 
cense.^ 

As  this  allowance  was  given  only  to  the  London  Ga- 
zette and  to  L'Estrange's  new  paper,  The  Ohservator, 
life  for  the  journalists  was  just  as  unbearable  as  when 
the  license  act  was  in  force.  James  II,  however,  was  not 
satisfied  with  this  common-law  protection,  which  was  am- 
ple enough,  as  the  printers  and  writers,  who  had  served  in 
jail  under  it,  could  testify,  and  in  1685,  immediately 
after  his  accession,  censorship  of  the  press  was  revived. 

Those  were  sad  years  for  our  Protestant  Pilgrims  on 
the  edge  of  the  wilderness  in  New  England,  but  not  dull 
ones.  There  was  no  need  of  any  license  law  to  keep  them 
from  printing  seditious  pamphlets  or  newspapers,  for 
Indian  wars,  smallpox  and  the  severe  New  England 
winters  kept  them  engrossed  without  the  aid  of  political 
discussion,  while  their  material  troubles  divided  their  at- 
tention with  the  struggle  against  heresy  and  sin.  Though 
they  were  all  of  the  same  sect  and  religious  belief,  it  was 
no  easy  matter  to  maintain  harmony  in  matters  spiritual. 

Persecutions  in  the  mother  country  had  helped  largely 
to  increase  emigration  to  the  colonies,  although  the  new- 
comers soon  found  that  on  this  side  of  the  ocean  govern- 
ment was  far  from  humane, —  Radcliffe's  ears  had  been 

*  May,  Constitutional  History  of  England,  ii,  105 ;  State  Trials, 
vii,  929. 


HISTORIC  PREPARATION  FOR  JOURNALISM        9 

cut  off,  and  he  had  been  banished  from  the  colony  because 
he  criticized  the  government  and  the  church.  It  was  a 
cruel  age,  and  perhaps  it  would  be  too  much  to  expect  that 
these  men,  cast  off  into  a  new  world,  would  develop  re- 
fining processes  over  and  above  those  of  their  mother 
country. 

Another  new-comer,  Roger  Williams,  soon  clashed 
with  the  intolerant  authorities,  and  the  over-bold  inno- 
vator was  driven  out  of  the  colony  to  found  a  more  lib- 
eral one  of  his  own. 

A  woman  was  another  conspicuous  disturber  of  the 
colony's  smug  self-content.  Mrs.  Hutchinson  arrived  in 
1634  with  an  apparently  harmless  message,  but  one  cal- 
culated to  disturb  the  colonists.  "  She  brought  with  her," 
said  Governor  Winthrop,  "  two  dangerous  errors ;  that 
the  person  of  the  Holy  Ghost  dwells  in  a  justified  person, 
and  that  no  sanctification  can  help  to  evidence  to  us  our 
justification."  Of  course,  no  self-respecting  Puritan  gov- 
ernment could  stand  such  heresy,  but  the  plain  people, 
with  an  aptitude  for  theological  hair-splitting  that  later 
generations  can  scarcely  appreciate,  took  Mrs.  Hutchin- 
son and  her  two  heresies  to  their  bosoms;  in  order  that 
there  might  be  peace  and  unanimity  in  the  community  — 
according  to  the  Puritan  idea  of  a  good  community  —  it 
was  necessary  to  banish  Mrs.  Hutchinson  and  several  im- 
portant men  of  the  colony  who  had  become  converts. 

The  importance  of  Mrs.  Hutchinson  is  due  to  the  fact 
that  about  the  time  of  her  appearance  there  began  to  be 
great  nervousness  over  the  problem  of  witchcraft.  Win- 
throp, in  his  journal,  suggested  that  her  devilish  doctrines 
might  have  been  inspired  by  a  real  witch. 

Despite  these  troubles,  the  colony  prospered,  spiritually 
as  well  as  materially.  Harvard  College  was  founded  in 
1636.     By  1645  the  colonists  were  producing^  more  than 


10  HISTORY  OF  JOURNAUSM 

they  needed,  exporting  was  begun,  and  vessels  were  built, 
the  latter  industry  thriving  so  well  that  by  1665  they  had 
built  about  eighty  ships  of  from  twenty  to  forty  tons  and 
twelve  of  over  one  hundred  tons.^^ 

England  began  to  take  notice  of  this  colony,  whose 
prosperity  was  being  noised  about.  In  1673  the  colony 
had  five  iron-works,  the  products  of  which  were  used  ex- 
clusively by  the  colonists,  and  along  with  this  opulence, 
the  people  began  to  get  beyond  the  control  of  the  church 
so  that  we  hear  more  and  more  about  sin  and  its  allure. 
In  1675  King  Philip's  War  broke  out,  and  for  two  years 
there  was  a  sanguinary  conflict.  In  the  same  year  the 
first  fire  of  importance  swept  away  forty-five  dwellings 
and  several  large  warehouses,  but  the  greatest  catastrophe 
was  when  King  James,  on  his  accession  to  the  throne, 
took  away  the  charter  of  the  colony  and  appointed  Gov- 
ernor Andros  to  rule  over  these  sturdy  believers  in  their 
right  —  and  their  ability  —  to  rule  themselves.  All  the 
annoyances  possible  from  a  tyrannical  representative  of 
a  tyrannical  king,  Andros  inflicted.  Though  the  colonists 
murmured  and  met  in  secret,  it  was  not  until  they  had 
learned  of  the  Revolution  in  England  and  of  the  invasion 
by  the  Prince  of  Orange,  that  they  seized  Andros  and  his 
associates,  restoring  the  old  form  of  government. 

Despite  these  activities  and  interests,  the  colonists  were 
far  from  indifferent  toward  the  spirit  of  the  times,  and 
the  happenings  across  the  seas.  Many  ships  brought 
news  of  the  home-land,  and  the  news-letters,  direct  pre- 
cursors of  the  newspapers,  not  only  brought  news  from 
the  other  side  but  developed  the  habit  of  wanting  news 
about  themselves.  Religious  news  was  the  most  impor- 
tant item,  as  might  be  expected  in  a  community  of  eight 
thousand  inhabitants  where  the  intense  religious  fervor, 

^^  Skelton,  Story  of  New  England,  96. 


HISTORIC  PREPARATION  FOR  JOURNALISM       n 

of  the  type  that  this  generation  knows  as  the  spasmodic 
revival,  \va3  not  a  matter  of  a  week  or  a  month,  l^ut  had 
been  the  business  of  the  colony  from  the  time  when  their 
grandparents  had  come  into  the  wilderness  and,  with  the 
aid  of  God,  had  built  up  a  thriving  city. 

There  were  book-stores  and  culture  of  a  kind,  but  just 
as  we  see  cities,  communities  and  nations  influenced  and 
swayed  by  dominant  intellects,  so  here  the  dominating 
intellects  were  men  whose  culture  was  narrow ;  men  who, 
representing  generations  of  persecution  for  their  beliefs, 
had  grown  to  hate  all  not  closely  allied  with  their  own 
sect;  men  w^ho,  like  Cotton  Mather  —  though  he  was  a 
leader,  with  none  quite  like  him  —  saw  God  only  in  the 
thunder  and  the  storm,  and  never  dreamed  that  humanity 
could  be  led  to  reverence  the  Deity  through  the  simple 
processes  of  Eternal  Law,  unfolding  and  unraveling  man's 
liberty,  equality  and  happiness. 


CHAPTER  II 

THE  FIRST  NEWSPAPER  IN  AMERICA 

Contemporary  indifference  to  Harris  —  His  important  part  in 
struggle  for  free  press  —  Prosecuted  by  Jeffreys  —  Jailed 
and  pilloried  for  seditious  publication  —  Imprisoned  for  sec- 
ond time  —  His  arrival  in  America  —  Opens  coffee-shop  — 
Publishes  first  newspaper  in  America  —  Reasons  for  suppres- 
sion—  Author  of  New  England  Primer  —  Returns  to  Eng- 
land —  Date  of  death  unknown. 

Into  this  settlement  came  Benjamin  Harris,  arriving, 
according  to  one  authority,  in  1687;  according  to  the 
Boston  Town  Records,  in  1686.  If  ever  a  community 
needed  a  particular  type  of  man,  Boston  of  this  period 
needed  Benjamin  Harris  —  London  bookseller,  printer, 
"  brisk  asserter  of  English  liberties,"  and  later  on  the 
author  of  the  Nem  England  Primer.  That  he  was  sup- 
pressed and  driven  back  to  the  London  from  which  he 
had  come,  was  the  misfortune  of  a  colony  not  liberal 
enough  to  welcome  him,  for  he  was  of  the  type  of  the 
earlier  Pilgrims  and  of  those  later  New  Englanders  who 
directed  the  fight  for  independence. 

Contemporary  records  afford  us  little  information  about 

Harris,  though  he  left  his  impression  on  the  journalism 

of  two  countries  and  was  an  exceptional  figure  in  the 

fight  for  a  free  press  in  both  England  and  America. 

That  he  has  been  neglected  by  those  who  have  come 

after  him,  has  been  due,  not  so  much  to  indifference  to 

him  personally  as   to   the   general   indifference  to   the 

journalist  who  fails,  no  matter  what  the  cause. 

12 


THE  FIRST  NEWSPAPER  IN  AMERICA  13 

A  robust,  interesting  character  was  Harris,  whose  con- 
tribution to  the  history  of  two  continents  is  deserving  of 
a  better  fate,  for  nowhere  is  there  even  a  biography  of 
him,  though  in  his  day  both  American  and  EngHsh  au- 
thorities knew  him  well  and  had  to  take  official  cogniz- 
ance of  his  endeavor  to  enlarge  the  scope  of  the  press 
and  to  unshackle  the  budding  journalistic  idea. 

Although  the  part  he  played  in  England  as  one  of  the 
most  assertive  of  Whig  journalists  was  not  inconsider- 
able, apparently  it  brought  him  no  attention  when  he 
came  to  this  country,  where  the  authorities,  vigorous  be- 
lievers in  their  own  liberties  though  they  were,  did  not 
propose  to  undergo  any  unnecessary  risks  in  behalf  of 
so  combative  and  unpopular  a  person  as  Harris. 

The  first  venture  of  which  we  have  any  knowledge 
is  his  publication  in  London,  begun  on  July  7,  1679, 
of  the  Domestic  Intelligence,  more  a  political  periodical 
than  a  newspaper,  for  newspapers  were  not  permitted. 
With  other  publications  of  a  similar  type,  it  served  the 
purpose  of  keeping  alive  the  Whig  fight  against  Tory 
principles  and  religious  persecution.  Harris  had  his  fol- 
lowing in  London  even  then,  for  we  learn  that  the  Green 
Ribbon  Club  sent  its  political  paragraphs  to  him  regularly. 
On  the  other  hand,  he  had  vigorous  opponents,  and  one 
of  his  rivals,  Nathaniel  Thompson,  accusing  him  of  "  lift- 
ing "  the  "  stories  "  of  his  competitor,  thus  character- 
ized his  new  venture : 

"  There  hath  lately  dropped  into  the  world  an  abortive 
birth  by  a  factious,  infamous,  perjured  antichristian,  a 
senseless  lying  pamphlet,  by  the  name  of  the  City  and 
Country  News.  This  is  the  first  of  his  offspring  that 
ever  bore  name,  the  rest  being  spurious  and  illegitimate, 
like  his  natural  issue,  which  he  either  durst  not  own,  or 
would  not  bring  to  the  font  to  receive  the  marks  of 


14  HISTORY  OF  JOURNALISM 

Christianity  no  more  than  himself.  This  pamphlet-nap- 
per  and  press-pirate  hath  cruised  abroad  since  he  put  up 
for  himself,  to  make  a  prize  of  other  men's  copies,  to 
stuff  his  own  cargo  with  ill-gotten  profit,  making  his 
business  cheating  and  usurpation,  to  defraud  all  men, 
and  by  factious  libels  to  sow  sedition  amongst  the  peo- 
ple, and  frighten  allegiance  from  the  subjects'  bosoms. 
Now  I  have  yourselves  and  all  honest  men  to  be  judges, 
whether  of  the  two  be  the  best  intelligence;  he  having  not 
only  stolen  from  other  intelligences,  but  likewise  from 
mine,  to  make  up  his  senseless  scrawl,  as  particularly  the 
relation  of  Mr.  Carte  the  Jesuit,  taken  in  St.  James,  which 
he  inserted  in  his  for  want  of  matter,  three  days  after 
the  same  was  published  by  me,  in  a  single  half-sheet;  and 
this  is  the  whole  proceeding  of  this  infallible  news- 
monger." ^ 

In  the  spring  of  1680  Harris  was  arrested  for  publish- 
ing a  then  famous  Appeal  from  the  Country  to  the  City, 
in  which  the  King  was  openly  criticized.  He  was  tried 
before  Chief  Justice  Scroggs  by  the  infamous  Jeffreys, 
and  what  has  been  preserved  of  the  record  shows  that 
the  pioneer  journalist  of  America  was,  even  in  those 
times  of  bullying  judges,  an  independent  and  courageous 
soul. 

At  the  trial,  his  neighbors  testified  that  he  was  a  quiet, 
peaceable,  ''  fair-conditioned  "  man,  but  the  Chief  Justice 
over-rode  all  the  testimony,  declaring  him  to  be  the 
"  worst  man  in  the  world  " —  surely  a  great  distinction 
in  times  that  knew  many  evil  men  —  and  sent  the  jury 
out  with  an  open  intimation  as  to  the  kind  of  verdict 
that  was  expected  from  them. 

The  courtroom  was  crowded  with  Harris'  sympathiz- 
ers; that  he  was  not  without  friends  among  the  jury  is 

1  Cooke,  History  of  Party,  i,  363. 


THE  FIRST  NEWSPAPER  IN  AMERICA  15 

shown  by  the  fact  that  one  of  the  jurors  asked  if  they 
might  not  take  the  seditious  pamphlets  with  them  to  look 
over.  This  was  refused.  Harris  himself  had  asked  if 
he  might  not  address  the  jury.     This  also  was  denied. 

The  opening  speech  of  Recorder  Jeffreys  indicates  that 
Harris'  well-wishers  gave  free  vent  to  their  emotions,  for 
the  prosecutor  hoped  that  the  large  numbers  present  had 
come  to  "  blush  rather  than  to  give  encouragement "  to 
Harris'  great  crime. 

That  the  hope  was  not  well  founded  is  shown  by  the 
recorded  fact  that  when  the  jury  brought  in  a  verdict  of 
"  Guilty  of  selling  the  book,"  —  a  plain  evasion,  and  a 
direct  slap  at  the  irascible  Chief  Justice,  — ''  there  was  a 
great  and  clamorous  shout."  But  the  court  was  not  go- 
ing to  allow^  the  jury  to  interfere  with  the  business  in 
hand,  and  the  foreman  was  informed  that  it  w^as  his  duty 
to  say  "  Guilty,"  which  was  done,  and  then  came  words 
from  Harris  that  are  just  as  line  as  some  of  the  expres- 
sions that  have  made  famous  other  champions  of  liberty. 
Before  he  was  sentenced,  he  earnestly  besought  his  lord- 
ship that  he  might  be  sent  to  any  other  prison  than  New- 
gate, the  horrors  of  w^hich  live  with  the  pits  of  ancient 
Syracuse,  but  the  request  was  denied,  whereupon  he  said : 
"  I  hope  God  will  give  me  patience  to  go  through  with  it." 

There  is  something  of  the  best  of  i\merican  journalism 
in  that  simple  declaration  —  it  was  the  attitude  of  Zenger, 
whose  willingness  to  combat  authorities  meant  so  much  in 
pre-Revolutionary  times;  it  was  the  spirit  of  Garrison, 
and  it  has  been  shown  in  a  hundred  and  one  ways,  when 
the  freedom  of  the  press  and  the  idea  of  democracy  have 
been  challenged  by  authority. 

He  was  sentenced  to  pay  a  fine  of  £500,  to  stand  in 
the  pillory  one  hour,  and  to  find  sureties  for  his  good  be- 
havior for  three  years.     Indeed,  had  it  not  been  for  Jus- 


l6  HISTORY  OF  JOURNALISM 

tice  Pemberton,  the  Lord  Chief  Justice  would  have  added 
that  he  should  be  *'  publicly  whipt." 

On  the  17th  of  February  he  was  stood  in  the  pillory 
"  over  against  the  Old  Exchange  "  in  London,  and  his 
friends  were  again  to  the  fore,  for  they  interfered  with 
one  of  the  main  sports  of  the  day,  inasmuch  as  "  his 
party  hollowed  and  whooped  and  would  permit  nothing  to 
be  thrown  at  him."  ^ 

The  next  we  hear  of  him  is  on  April  27,  1680,  when  he 
announces  that  he  has  "  for  several  weighty  reasons,"  ^ 
laid  down  his  paper,  The  Domestic  Intelligence.  Both  ac- 
tion and  reasons  seem  most  logical,  in  view  of  the  fact 
that  the  communication  is  dated  from  "  King's  Bench 
Prison  in  Southwark." 

For  a  while,  neither  the  indecency  of  his  trial  nor  the 
severe  punishment  meted  out  to  him  broke  Harris'  spirit, 
and  he  addressed  to  Scroggs  *'  Twenty-four  Queries " 
which  furnish  interesting  comment  on  the  trial  of  libel 
cases  at  that  time.  But  his  suffering  must  have  been  se- 
vere, and  it  was  even  suggested  that  his  death  was 
planned.'* 

It  is  not  surprising,  therefore,  that  we  find  Scroggs,  at 
the  trial  of  Harry  Care,  another  writer  of  seditious  pam- 
phlets, declaring  that  Harris,  deserted  by  his  friends,  had 
sent  him  word  that  he  was  ready  to  "  cry  quits."  There- 
upon the  learned  judge  read  the  noisy  crowd  in  front  of 
him  a  lecture,  pointing  out  that  behavior  like  that  of  the 
"  unfortunate  man  Harris  "  leads  to  no  good,^  and  that 
Harris'  friends  had  neglected  to  pay  his  fine  of  £500, 
which  he  said  would  have  been  about  five  shillings  apiece, 

2Luttrell,  i,  34- 

8  Andrews,  History  of  British  Journalism,  i,  70. 

*  Sir  Roger  L'Estrange,  271. 

^  State  Trials,  vii,  931. 


THE  FIRST  NEWSPAPER  IN  AMERICA  17 

"  if  they  had  been  as  free  of  their  purses  as  they  were  of 
their  noise  and  acclamations."  ^ 

On  September  18th''  he  was  examined  and  is  said  to 
have  given  some  information,  unfortunately  too  soon,  for 
in  December,  Scroggs  and  Jeffreys  suffered  impeachment 
and  humiliation  at  the  bar  of  Commons,  Harris'  own  trial 
and  conviction  being  cited  in  the  impeachment  of  the 
former.^  The  dread  hand  for  a  short  time  was  removed 
from  the  press  and  Harris  merrily  proceeded  with  his 
Intelligence,  but  was  soon  in  hot  w^ater  with  his  contem- 
poraries as  to  who  was  telling  the  truth.  In  the  spring 
he  was  arrested  again  on  a  political  charge.  The  follow- 
ing year  he  heard  that  another  warrant  was  out  for  him, 
and  insisted  upon  being  arrested  w^hile  a  friend  of  his  — 
one  Bethel,  a  Whig  —  was  sheriff,  showing  that  Mr.  Har- 
ris had  political  wisdom  as  well  as  editorial  pugnacity. 

But  the  foresight  proved  unavailing  and  again  he  went 
to  gaol.  This  time  he  broke  down  before  the  punishment, 
and  is  said  to  have  disclosed  the  names  of  those  who  had 
written  the  offending  articles  that  he  had  published.  At 
least,  it  cannot  be  said  that  he  feared  to  go  to  gaol,  nor 
can  it  be  denied  that  he  went  with  courage  and  with  forti- 
tude. 

After  this,  until  he  appears  in  America,  we  find  no  rec- 
ord of  his  activities,  although  his  friend,  John  Dunton  — 
the  ''crazy  book-seller,"  Macaulay  calls  him  —  speaks  of 
his  keeping  a  coffee-house,  and  refers  to  his  wife,  "  like 
a  kind  rib,"  defending  him  when  he  was  placed  in  the 
pillory,  referring  doubtless  to  the  punishment  that  was 
meted  out  to  him  by  Scroggs. 

Dunton,  when  he  came  to  New  England  with  a  cargo 

^  State  Trials,  vii,  1126;  also  Sir  Roger  L' Estrange. 

^  Luttrell,  i,  127. 

®  Cobbett,  Parliamentary  History  of  England,  iv,  1274. 


l8  HISTORY  OF  JOURNALISM 

of  books,  wrote  to  a  friend  in  i68'6  that  Ben  Harris  — 
tired,  like  so  many  of  those  who  were  emigrating,  of  try- 
ing to  make  a  Hving  and  battling  for  liberty  in  Eng- 
land —  was  contemplating  coming  to  America.  Dunton 
viewed  the  project  dubiously,  for  while  he  admitted  that 
Harris  '*  had  many  good  thoughts,"  he  had  *'  wanted  the 
art  of  improving  'em  and  could  he  fix  his  Mercury  a  lit- 
tle, and  not  be  so  volatile,  he  would  do  well  enough."  He 
gives  us  our  only  idea  of  Harris'  age  by  declaring  that  he 
is  advanced  in  years  and  at  best  can  only  hope  to  "  scuffle 
through  this  world." 

Harris  had  little  intention  of  "  scuffling  through,"  for 
that  very  year  he  appeared  in  Boston  and  opened  up  a 
"  Coffee,  Tea  and  Chucaletto  "  shop. 

A  year  later  he  was  printing  books  and  employing  print- 
ers at  what  he  called  the  London  Printing  House. ^  In 
the  diary  of  Samuel  Sewall,  the  return  of  Harris  from 
London  is  noted  on  January  25,  1688,  and  in  the  fall  of 
the  same  year,  when  Sewall  himself  sailed  for  England, 
Harris  was  again  on  board. 

Sewall  states  that  the  day  after  they  sailed  "  the  wind 
came  out  at  North  East  to  our  great  discomfort,"  and 
Harris  read  the  twenty-first  chapter  of  Proverbs,  "  which 
is  the  first  chapter  I  heard  read  on  ship-board.  ...  I 
must  heed  that  voice  —  he  that  wandereth  out  of  the  way 
of  understanding  shall  remain  in  the  congregation  of  the 
dead." 

The  picture  of  Harris  in  America  compares  well  with 
the  Harris  we  have  seen  in  England;  he  arrives  in  the 
country  and  is  speedily  in  touch  with  its  most  distinguished 
judge;  he  has  hardly  been  here  two  years  when,  with  an 
energy  unusual  in  those  days,  he  embarks  on  a  fourth 
winter  ocean  voyage  in  company  with  the  judge,  who 
^  Ford,  New  England  Primer,  31. 


THE  FIRST  NEWSPAPER  IN  AMERICA  19 

marks  him  as  a  man  of  unusual  piety,  as  well  as  of  stout 
heart. 

The  trip  abroad  must  necessarily  have  been  for  busi- 
ness purposes,  whether  for  books  or  in  relation  to  his 
"  Coffee-house."  The  coffee-clubs  took  the  place  of  the 
"  saloons  "of  another  epoch  when  the  politician  or  propa- 
gandist discovered  there  a  receptivity  for  his  ideas  that 
he  would  not  have  found  in  less  social  and  convivial 
places. 

It  is  more  likely  that  his  trip  had  to  do  with  the  paper 
which  he  was  to  issue.  Without  further  intimation,  so 
far  as  any  of  the  contemporary  records  show,  without  fan- 
fare or  preliminary  advertising,  Pnhlick  Occurances  ap- 
peared on  September  25,  1690  —  the  first  newspaper  to 
be  printed  on  this  continent  —  published  from  Harris' 
*'  London  Coffee  House,"  the  printing  being  done  for  him 
by  Richard  Pierce. 

The  first  issue  was  printed  on  three  pages  of  a  folded 
sheet,  leaving  the  last  page  blank,  there  being  two  col- 
umns to  a  page,  each  page  being  about  eleven  by  seven 
inches. 

Harris  begins  by  declaring  that  his  purpose  is  to  fur- 
nish the  country  once  a  month  with  an  account  of  "  such 
considerable  things  as  have  arrived  unto  our  notice,"  a 
promise  calculated  to  arouse  the  interest  of  the  dwellers 
in  the  wilderness,  who  must  have  been  hungry  for  news 
of  their  fellow-men.  He  promises  that  he  will  take  pains 
to  collect  his  news  and  will  "  particularly  make  himself 
beholden  to  such  persons  in  Boston  whom  he  knows  to 
have  been  for  their  own  use  the  diligent  observers  of  such 
matters." 

Thirdly  he  states,  "  that  something  may  be  done  to- 
ward curing,  or  at  least  the  charming,  of  that  spirit  of 
lying  which  prevails  among  us;  wherefore,  nothing  shall 


20  HISTORY  OF  JOURNALISM 

be  entered  but  what  we  have  reason  to  believe  is  true, 
repairing  to  the  best  fountains  for  our  information.  And 
when  there  appears  any  material  mistakes  in  anything  that 
is  collected,  it  shall  be  corrected  in  the  next. 

"  Moreover,  the  Publisher  of  these  Occurances  is  will- 
ing to  engage,  that  whereas  there  are  many  false  reports, 
maliciously  made  and  spread  among  us,  if  any  well- 
minded  person  will  be  at  the  pains  to  trace  any  such  false 
report,  so  far  as  I  find  out  and  convict  the  first  raiser  of  it, 
he  will  in  this  paper  (unless  just  advice  be  given  to  the 
contrary)  expose  the  name  of  such  person  as  a  malicious 
raiser  of  false  report.  It  is  supposed  that  none  will  dis- 
like this  proposal,  but  such  as  intend  to  be  guilty  of  so 
villainous  a  crime." 

Then  followed  the  news  or  ''Occurances,"  which  — 
considering  that  this  was  seventy  years  after  the  landing 
of  the  Pilgrims  on  Plymouth  Rock,  and  two  hundred 
years  after  the  invention  of  printing  —  shows  that  our 
pioneer  journalist  was  not  lacking  in  what  is  now  called 
news-sense.  We  are  informed  that  the  Christianized 
Indians  in  Plymouth  had  appointed  a  day  of  Thanksgiv- 
ing, and  their  example  is  commended  to  other  non-Indian 
neighbors  in  a  line  that  seems  sarcastic. 

There  is  a  brief  mention  of  the  fact  that  two  children 
had  been  stolen  by  Indians  from  the  settlement  of  Chelms- 
ford, the  correspondent  and  not  the  editor  being  respon- 
sible for  the  fact  that  names  are  not  given. 

From  Watertown  there  is  communicated  the  news  that 
an  old  man  (again  the  correspondent  neglects  to  give  the 
name)  "  having  lost  his  wife,  fell  into  a  fit  of  melancholy 
during  which  the  devil  took  possession  of  him  with  the 
result  that  one  morning  early  in  the  month  he  was  found 
hanging  in  the  cow-house."  It  is  noted  that  the  small- 
pox is  abating  in  Boston,  but  that  another  disease  —  seem- 


THE  FIRST  NEWSPAPER  IN  AMERICA  21 

ing  to  be  more  or  less  of  a  malignant  fever,  not  unlike 
the  influenza  with  which  this  generation  is  acquainted  — 
is  growing  into  a  common  thing,  and  the  report  states 
that  three  hundred  and  twenty  people  had  died  by  the  last 
visitation  of  smallpox. 

Two  fires  are  reported,  and  with  much  feeling  it  is  noted 
that  in  one  of  them  a  PRINTING  PRESS  (the  capitals 
are  Harris')  had  been  destroyed. 

It  was  in  his  account  of  the  battle  with  the  French 
and  Indians  that  Harris  printed  news  which  was  to  be  his 
undoing.  Read  even  to-day  his  report  of  the  expedition 
against  the  French  and  the  use  of  the  friendly  Maquas  by 
Governor  Winthrop  is  not  bad  reporting  when  one  consid- 
ers that  reporting  had  yet  to  be  developed  or  even  inau- 
gurated. It  was  a  report,  however,  that  contained  mat- 
ters that  the  authorities  were  not  desirous  of  having 
printed,  for  it  told  how  the  Indian  allies  of  the  colonists 
had  treated  the  French  prisoners  with  great  barbarity. 
Harris  protested  against  trying  to  subdue  Canada  with 
the  assistance  of  "  these  miserable  savages." 

Stout  old  Benjamin  Harris,  fine  old  Whig  —  even  in 
the  wilderness  he  was  on  the  side  of  humanity  and  prog- 
ress, to  the  very  great  displeasure  of  the  authorities.  Two 
days  after  publication.  Judge  Sewall  noted  in  his  diary 
that  the  paper  had  appeared  and  that  it  had  given  "  much 
distaste  "  because  it  was  not  licensed  and  because  of  the 
"  passages  referring  to  the  French  King  and  the  Maquas." 
Four  days  later  the  legislative  authorities  took  the  matter 
up  officially,  sagely  ruling  that  it  contained  "  reflections  of 
a  very  high  nature,"  and  strictly  forbade  "  anything  in 
print  without  license  first  obtained  from  those  appointed 
by  the  government  to  grant  the  same."  ^^ 

We  learn  from  Sewall,  under  date  of  the  following 
^^  Sewall,  i,  332  and  ii,  345 ;  Felt,  Annals  of  Salem,  14. 


22  HISTORY  OF  JOURNALISM 

May,  that  even  though  suppressed  as  a  publisher,  Harris 
was  still  a  private  purveyor  of  news,  for  lie  brought  the 
information  that  Captain  Leisler  and  Mr.  Millburn  had 
been  executed  in  New  York.  The  same  year  a  partner- 
ship was  formed  with  John  Allen  and  a  printing  shop  of 
their  own  was  set  up.  Evidently  he  was  working  back 
into  the  graces  of  the  authorities,  for,  a  short  time  after, 
he  was  made  the  official  printer  and  ordered  to  print  the 
laws  "  that  we  the  people  may  be  informed  thereof." 

But  the  spirit  of  Harris  could  not  be  contented  in  the 
colonies  so  long  as  the  mother  country  afforded  greater 
prospects  for  safe  political  activity  to  one  of  his  ardent 
temperament.  Though  ih^  London  Gazette  was  the  only 
paper  published  while  the  licensing  act  was  in  force,  the 
keen  interest  in  the  news  was  satisfied  at  the  coffee-houses 
in  London  and  by  the  news-letters  throughout  the  country. 
The  official  paper  was  edited  by  a  clerk  in  the  office  of 
the  Secretary  of  State,  who  published  nothing  but  the 
dullest  doings  of  the  government.  The  censorship  law 
expired  on  May  25,  1695,  and  within  a  fortnight  there- 
after, Harris,  back  in  London,  was  once  more  on  the 
ground  with  the  announcement  that  the  Intelligence  Do- 
mestic and  Foreign  that  had  been  suppressed  by  tyranny, 
fourteen  years  before,  would  again  appear. 


-^5 


CHAPTER    III 

THE  FIRST  JOURNALS  AND  THEIR  EDITORS 

The  news-letter  of  England  —  In  America  —  Postmaster  as 
editor  —  America's  first  newspaper — The  Boston  News-Let- 
ter—  Origin  —  Character  of  paper  —  Its  lack  of  enterprise 
—  Brooker  and  the  second  paper  —  Appearance  of  James 
Franklin  —  Conflict  with  the  authorities  —  Benjamin  Frank- 
lin's journalistic  beginning. 

The  news-letter,  of  ancient  origin,  filled  the  place  of 
newspapers  in  England  as  well  as  in  America,  long  before 
the  first  newspaper  appeared.  In  the  mother  country 
the  news-letter  had  become  an  important  political  engine.^ 
One  writer  in  particular,  a  high-churchman  named  Dyer, 
whose  letters  were  much  circulated  in  manuscript,  was 
twice  sent  to  prison  for  his  anti-government  writings, 
^-^agerness  for  news,  so  persistently  thw^arted  by  the 
government,  caused  the  people  of  London  to  fiock  to  the 
coffee-houses,  while  censorship  was  being  exercised,  as 
the  Athenians  of  ancient  times  flocked  to  the  market-place. 
To  some  extent  this,  satisfied  the  Londoners,  but  people 
in  the  provinces  were  obliged  to  depend  on  news-letters. 
These  were  prepared  by  writers  who  wandered  from 
one  cofTee-house  to  another,  gathering  material  for  weekly 
epistles  with  w^hich  to  enlighten  the  country  folk.  It 
was  an  evidence  of  the  material  well-being  of  a  country 
gentleman  that  his  news-letter  arrived  weekly  to  supply 
him  with  the  gossip  of  the  great  city.^  ^. 

The  demand  for  news-letters  brought  about,  in  1695, 

1  Macaulay,  History  of  England,  v,  2459. 

2  Macaulay,  History  of  England,  i,  381. 

23 


22  HISTORY  OF  JOURNALISM 

a  half-printed  and  half-written  news-letter  called  the 
Flying  Post,  which  declared  that  any  gentheman  who  had 
"  mind  to  oblige  his  country  friend  or  correspondent  with 
this  account  of  publick  affairs  "  might  purchase  it  for 
twopence  and  on  the  blank  half  of  the  sheet  ''  write  his 
own  private  business  or  the  material  news  of  the  day."  ^ 

While  the  American  mind,  as  developed  in  the  colonies, 
was  in  advance  of  the  contemporary  culture  of  Europe  in 
the  science  of  politics,*  the  homogeneous  character  of  the 
colonists,  or  rather  their  practical  unanimity  in  matters  of 
religion,  led  to  an  absence  of  the  acrimonious  political 
debate  that  marked  England  at  that  time,  although 
the  example  of  the  mother  country  was  to  bear  bitter 
fruit. 

Little  demand  for  political  discussion  existed  in  Amer- 
ica, but  there  was  a  great  demand  for  news,  and  since 
there  were  but  few  coffee-houses,  such  as  London  con- 
tained, it  was  natural  that  the  postmaster  should  be  the 
central  figure  for  the  trade  in  gossip. 

The  first  postmaster  of  Boston  was  Richard  Fairbanks, 
who  in  1639  was  of^cially  declared  to  be  the  person  at 
whose  house  all  letters  were  to  be  delivered.^  The  small- 
ness  of  the  compensation,  however,  led  the  postmasters  to 
devise  various  means  by  which  their  slight  income  might 
be  augmented,  so  that  in  1703  we  find  John  Campbell  — 
an  active  citizen  of  Boston,  interested  in  the  first  char- 
itable society  of  the  country, —  ^  adding  to  his  meager 
income  by  supplying  the  colonists  outside  of  Boston  with 
the  news  and  gossip  that  came  to  him  as  postmaster. 
Nine  of  these  letters,  addressed  to  Governor  Winthrop  of 

^  Andrews,  History  of  British  Journalism,  87. 

•*  North,  The  Newspaper  and  the  Periodical  Press,  10. 

^  Drake,  History  of  Boston,  2^7. 

6  Drake,  History  of  Boston,  455. 


THE  FIRST  JOURNALS  AND  THEIR  EDITORS      25 

Connecticut,  show  Campbell  as  a  faithful,  if  not  an  in- 
spired, reporter  of  the  events  of  the  dayJ 

That  the  memory  of  Harris'  attempt  with  the  first 
newspaper  still  lingered  is  shown  by  Campbell's  reference 
to  his  own  letters  as  journals  of  Puhlick  Occurances,  al- 
though it  is  evident  that  the  summary  treatment  accorded 
Harris'  publication  had  chilled  any  printer  or  writer  who 
might  have  thought  of  a  second  attempt  along  similar 
lines.  But  the  newspaper  was  bound  to  come,  especially 
when  the  newspapers  in  the  mother  country  were  attract- 
ing so  much  attention  and  exercising  so  great  an  influence 
on  the  public  mind. 

With  the  expiration  of  the  censorship  in  England  in 
1695, —  for  which  relief  so  much  was  owing  to  John 
Locke's  argument  before  Parliament  ^  —  journals  sprang 
up  by  the  dozen,  and,  though  America  remained  depend- 
ent on  the  news-letter  and  belated  copies  of  London  pa- 
pers for  its  information,  England  was  flooded  with  news- 
papers and  newspaper  discussion.  The  first  daily  news- 
paper in  London  made  its  appearance  in  1702;  and  the 
same  year  that  Campbell  started  what  was  really  the  first 
newspaper  in  America,  Daniel  Defoe  started  his  Review 
in  London. 

So  it  might  be  said  that  the  appearance  of  the  Boston 
News-Letter  on  April  24,  1704,  was  not  so  much  a  sign 
of  progressiveness  as  an  evidence  of  the  backwardness  of 
the  colonies.  Samuel  Sewall,  the  faithful  diarist,  re- 
cords under  this  date,  the  fact  that  the  News-Letter  had 
come  out  and  that  he  had  taken  the  first  copy  ever  car- 
ried "  over  the  river  "  to  President  Willard  of  Harvard 
University.  We  do  not  hear  now  of  the  lamentations 
that  accompanied  the  virile  publication  of  Benjamin  Har- 

"^  Massachusetts  Historical  Society,  ix,  485. 

SR.  R.  Fox  Bourne,  Life  of  John  Locke,  ii,  312-315- 


26  HISTORY  OF  JOURNALISM 

ris,  for  Campbell  was  careful  to  publish  his  paper  "  by 
authority  "  and  to  print  nothing  that  would  offend  the 
authorities  or  religious  leaders  such  as  Mather,  who  had 
waxed  so  indignant  over  the  Harris  publication. 

Most  of  the  paper  is  taken  up  with  extracts  from  the 
London  Flying  Post  and  the  London  Gazette  of  the  pre- 
vious December.  This  was  doubtless  a  very  safe  intro- 
duction. When  it  came  to  printing  the  local  news,  the 
harmless  Campbell  restricted  himself  to  recording  several 
particularly  eminent  deaths  and  the  announcement  of  a 
sermon  by  the  Reverend  Mr.  Pemberton,  of  extensive 
influence.  There  was  a  short,  snappy  account  of  a  sea 
fight  between  the  English  and  the  French  and  the  story  of 
a  scare  about  French  ships  appearing  off  Rhode  Island, — 
several  '*  marine  items,"  as  they  would  be  called  to-day, 
and  then  his  announcement  that  he  would  be  ready  to 
take  advertisements  and  subscriptions,  prices  to  be  fur- 
nished by  calling  on  Mr.  Campbell  himself  at  the  post 
office. 

There  is  none  of  the  spirit  of  Harris  here,  no  burning 
indignation  against  conditions,  such  as  marked  the  great 
journalists  and  later  made  journalism  the  voice  of  the 
people,  nor  during  his  career  as  editor  do  we  find  Camp- 
bell showing  any  desire  to  bring  about  a  better  condition 
of  affairs  or  any  other  evidence  of  the  progressive  spirit. 
It  is,  therefore,  not  to  be  wondered  that  Campbell's  color- 
less publication  had  a  hard  struggle. 

Truly  a  timid  spirit  was  poor  Campbell,  whose  paper 
persisted  for  fifteen  years  without  character  or  progress, 
but  with  frequent  pitiful  requests  for  contributions  and 
assistance.  We  find  him  pleading,  the  year  after  he  had 
established  the  paper,  that  the  post  office  was  paying  him 
very  little  money,  and  that,  despite  the  fact  that  a  num- 
ber of  merchants  had  promised  to  contribute  to  the  sup- 


THE  FIRST  JOURNALS  AND  THEIR  EDITORS      27 

port  of  his  weekly  Nezvs-Lettcr,  he  had  not  made  any- 
thing by  it.  He  begged  the  Governor  to  grant  him  some 
allowance  "  to  encourage  him  in  said  duty  for  the  fu- 
ture," a  petition  that  resulted  in  his  being  allowed  six 
shillings  or  six  pounds,  the  exact  amount  not  being  de- 
cipherable.^ 

Fifteen  years  after  he  had  started  the  paper  he  appealed 
to  the  public  for  assistance,  stating  that  he  had  ''  supplied 
them  conscientiously  with  publick  occurances  of  Europe 
and  with  those  of  these,  our  neighboring  provinces,  and 
the  West  Indies,"  ^^  although  he  admitted  that  at  one 
time  he  had  been  a  little  matter  of  thirteen  months  behind- 
hand with  the  news.  The  time  had  come,  he  said,  when 
he  must  have  assistance,  frankly  admitting  that  his  cir- 
culation was  not  over  300  copies,  although  some  ignorant 
persons  had  spread  about  a  report  that  he  was  selling  up- 
ward of  a  thousand.  He  therefore  pleaded,  the  good 
postmaster,  that  those  who  had  not  paid  for  the  half 
year's  subscription  would  please  come  forward  to  his 
house  in  Cornhill  and  lay  down  the  cash. 

Campbell's  lack  of  success  aroused  little  sympathy,  for 
while  some  of  the  fault  may  have  been  with  the  authori- 
ties, we  cannot  help  contrasting  his  puny  and  generally 
uninteresting  gazette,  which  had  held  the  field  for  sixteen 
years  without  a  rival,  with  the  great  development  of  jour- 
nalism, in  the  mother  country.  It  was  during  these  six- 
teen years  that  Addison,  Swift  and  Steele  were,  as  Henry 
Morley  says,  ''  teaching  the  English  people  to  read  "  in 
journals  which, 'if  they  did  not  come  up  to  modern  ideas 
and  high  standards  of  journalism,  were  bridging  the  chasm 
between  journalism  and  literature  and  establishing  for  the 
former  an  authority,  a  political  and  social  standing  that 

*  Historical  Magazine,  viii,  31. 
^0  August  10,  1719. 


28  HISTORY  OF  JOURNALISM 

was  to  count  for  much  in  the  battle  for  a  free  press  and 
poHtical  liberty. 

New  forces,  affecting  those  interested  both  in  literature 
and  politics,  were  at  work  in  England ;  chief  among  these 
forces  was  "  the  tendency  to  exalt  the  common  good  of 
society  at  the  expense  of  special  privileges."  ^^  Within 
a  few  years  after  the  News-Letter  was  established,  the 
circulation  of  the  papers  in  London  was  about  44,000,  the 
papers  named  being  the  Daily  Courant,  General  Remark, 
Female  Tatlcr,  General  Postscript,  Supplement,  British 
Apollo,  London  Gasette,  Postman,  Postboy,  Flying  Post, 
Review,  Tatler,  Rehearsal  Revived,  Evening  Post,  Whis- 
perer, Postboy  Junior,  City  Intelligence  and  Observa- 
tor. 

What  was  more  surprising  was  that  when  the  Whigs 
came  into  power  in  171 5,  with  George  the  First,  there 
was  no  sympathetic  reaction  in  a  journalistic  way  in  the 
colonies  as  might  have  been  expected.  Campbell's  jour- 
nalistic career  suffered  a  severe  blow  when  in  17 19  he 
was  removed  as  postmaster  and  a  William  Brooker  was 
appointed  in  his  place.  Campbell,  on  being  summarily 
dismissed,  declined  to  send  his  newspaper  through  the 
mail,  with  the  result  that  on  December  21,  1720,  Brooker 
brought  out  the  first  number  of  the  second  newspaper 
published  in  America,  called  the  Boston  Gazette,  which 
was  also  a  newspaper  "  published  by  authority  "  and  was 
printed  by  James  Franklin,  who  with  his  celebrated 
brother  was  to  play  an  important  part  in  shaping  the  early 
journalistic  history  of  colonial  America. 

Brooker  was  a  more  able  man  than  Campbell,  as  he 

showed  in  the  controversy  that  followed  between  the  two 

pioneer  journalists,  both  of  whom  incidentally  established 

that  connection  between  journalism  and  political  office 

^1  Stevens,  Notes  on  English  Politics,  1702-1750. 


THE  FIRST  JOURNALS  AND  THEIR  EDITORS      29 

which  has  persisted  to  our  day  and  doubtless  has  had 
something  to  do  with  the  journalist  regarding  himself, 
in  this  country  more  than  in  any  other,  as  entitled  to  di- 
rect governmental  support  and  reward.  We  shall  see 
curious  and  sometimes  rather  tragic  instances,  as  we 
progress,  of  the  endeavor  on  the  part  of  editors  to  unite 
the  functions  of  journalist  and  politician. 

Brooker's  paper  was  the  same  size  as  Campbell's  and 
was  issued  from  the  post  office  as  the  latter' s  had  been. 
This  fact  was  gall  and  wormwood  to  old  Campbell,  who 
showed  the  first  spirit  evidenced  in  his  journalistic  career, 
by  attacking  his  rival  in  really  modern  fashion,  declaring 
that  he  pitied  the  readers  of  the  new  newspaper  —  "  its 
sheets  smell  stronger  of  beer  than  of  midnight  oil  —  it  is 
not  reading  fit  for  people ! "  Certainly  this  was  the 
thrust  direct,  and  a  fine  evidence  that  after  the  long  sleep 
that  might  be  said  to  have  characterized  Campbell's  edi- 
torship up  to  this  period,  he  was  at  last  awake  and  was 
appearing  as  the  original  sponsor  of  the  personal  note 
that  was  afterward  to  be  so  seldom  missing  from  Amer- 
ican journalism. 

Right  modern,  too,  was  Brooker's  rejoinder,  intimating 
that  editor  Campbell  was  discussing  many  things  in  order 
to  confuse  the  public  mind  as  to  the  fact  that  he  had  been 
"  removed,  turned  out,  displaced  or  superseded "  from 
the  post  office,  although  it  seemed  to  his  successor  that 
"  removed  "  was  the  "  softest  epithet." 

Before  leaving  Campbell,  it  may  be  said  for  him  in 
extenuation  that  some  of  the  dullness  of  his  journal  was 
but  a  reflection  of  the  life  he  depicted,  and  it  can  also  be 
said  that  much  of  the  dreariness  of  New  England  life 
was  due  to  the  reign  of  the  Mathers.  Brooks  Adams 
has  well  observed  that  the  one  weak  point  in  the  other- 
wise strong  position  of  the  Massachusetts  clergy  was  that 


30  HISTORY  OF  JOURNALISM 

they  were  not  permitted  to  make  their  order  hereditary.^^ 
But  the  Mathers  came  near  estabHshing  a  dynasty.  It 
was  a  Mather  who  cried  out  against  the  Benjamin  Harris 
publication;  it  was  a  Mather  who  made  it  necessary  to 
have  printing  done  in  New  York  when  occasion  arose  for 
criticizing  those  stern  New  England  divines,  and  it  was 
unquestionably  the  spirit  of  the  Mathers  dominating  in 
New  England  that  led  the  community  to  stand,  for  sixteen 
long  years,  the  dull  and  phlegmatic  journalism  of  John 
Campbell. 

James  Franklin,  who  now  appeared  as  printer  of  the 
new  postmaster's  newspaper,  had  studied  his  trade  in  Lon- 
don, whither  he  had  been  sent  by  his  father,  Josiah  Frank- 
lin, whose  paternity  of  thirteen  children  made  it  neces- 
sary for  him  to  devote  some  thought  to  the  occupations 
which  they  were  to  follow. 

Benjamin  Franklin,  in  his  autobiography,  is  far  from 
kindly  toward  his  brother,  and  of  his  father  he  gives  us 
not  as  much  to  indicate  his  importance  as  does  the  chron- 
icler Sewall  in  several  short  lines.  The  Puritan  Pepys, 
as  Senator  Lodge  has  called  Sewall,  shows  what  our 
modern  yellow  journalist  would  call  a  keen  news  sense 
when  he  records  on  February  6,  1703,  that  *'  Ebenezer 
Franklin  of  the  South  Church,  a  male  infant  of  sixteen 
months  old  was  drown'd  in  a  tub  of  suds,  February  5, 
1703."  ^^  In  1708  Sewall  preached  at  the  house  of  Jo- 
siah Franklin  "  the  eleventh  sermon  of  the  Barren  Fig- 
tree."  ^^  He  records  going  to  a  meeting  at  Franklin's 
house  in  171 3,  when  Benjamin  was  in  his  eighth  year  and 
probably  had  the  privilege  of  sitting  very  still  and  listen- 
ing to  the  wonderful  elders.     In   171 8  Sewall,  having 

12  M.  C.  Crawford,  Old  Boston  in  Colonial  Days,  165. 

13  Sewall's  Diary,  ii,  yz- 
1-*  Ihid.  ii,  236. 


THE  FIRST  JOURNALS  AND  THEIR  EDITORS      31 

"  set  the  tune  "  for  twenty-four  years,  found  that  he  was 
wandering  off  the  key  and  suggested  that  Josiah  Frank- 
lin take  his  place  in  church. 

James  Franklin's  trip  to  London  had  done  much  for 
him  and  much  for  journalism,  for  he  came  back  from  a 
London  that  was  full  of  politics  and  journalistic  combat. 
The  influence  of  these  early  journalistic  masters  was 
broad  and  deep,  as  we  learn  from  Benjamin  Franklin's 
biography,  wherein  he  states  that  he  taught  himself  to 
write  excellent  English  prose  by  modeling  his  style  upon 
that  of  Addison  and  Steele;  an  evidence  indeed  that  the 
colonies  were  ripe  for  better  journalism,  when  the  son  of 
a  soap-maker,  at  the  age  of  thirteen  or  fourteen,  was 
imitating  the  pioneer  newspaper  stylists. 

The  Boston  Gazette  made  little  impression  on  the  life 
of  the  colony,  except  as  it  stirred  up  a  controversy  with 
the  old  postmaster,  Campbell,  who  continued  to  abuse 
Brooker  —  possibly  to  the  merriment  of  the  community 
but  with  no  advantage  to  either  gentleman,  for  in  a  few 
months  Brooker  lost  both  the  postmastership  and  the 
Gazette,  the  latter  passing  from  postmaster  to  postmaster, 
apparently  as  the  property  of  the  office,  or  rather  as  a 
perquisite  of  the  position. 

Between  17 19  and  1739,  the  Boston  Gazette  was  owned 
and  conducted  by  no  less  than  five  postmasters.  Each  of 
these,  of  course,  was  entitled  to  give  the  printing  of  the 
paper  to  whomsoever  he  would.  When  the  paper  passed 
into  the  hands  of  Brooker's  successor,  the  printing  was 
taken  away  from  James  Franklin.  The  young  printer, 
with  his  London  ideas  and  London  training,  and  with  the 
intelligence  that  was  evidently  a  family  possession,  deter- 
mined to  start  a  paper  of  his  own  and,  on  August  7,  1721, 
there  appeared  the  first  number  of  the  New  England 
Courant. 


32  HISTORY  OF  JOURNALISM 

The  new  editor  had  no  intention  of  abiding  by  the 
policies  that  had  characterized  his  predecessors,  for  in  the 
first  number  he  attacked  the  News-Letter  as  a  **  dull  ve- 
hicle of  intelligence,"  which  brought  down  upon  him  the 
wrath  of  old  Campbell.  What  was  of  more  importance 
was  that  Franklin,  his  paper  appearing  when  the  town 
was  being  ravaged  by  smallpox,  attacked  the  practice  of 
inoculation,  which  caused  Cotton  Mather  to  condemn  his 
paper  as  "  a  vile  production,"  and  to  regret  that  it  could 
not  be  suppressed  as  a  libelous  sheet. 

Franklin,  we  learn  from  his  brother  Benjamin,  had 
some  ingenious  and  intelligent  men  among  his  friends, 
who  backed  him  in  his  venture  and  anonymously  contrib- 
uted articles  to  it.  This  group  was  described  by  the 
clergy  as  a  **  Hell-Fire  Club." 

The  attack  of  Cotton  Mather  on  the  Courant  helped  as 
much  to  make  it  popular  as  did  its  own  courage  and  free- 
dom of  expression.  The  town  was  divided  over  the  nov- 
elty of  this  kind  of  journalism  and  some  even  stopped 
James  Franklin  on  the  street  to  remonstrate  with  him, 
while  others  attacked  him  in  the  News-Letter  and  in  the 
Gazette.  The  audacity  of  the  publishers  turned  out  to  be 
a  good  business  venture,  for  they  picked  up  forty  new 
subscribers,  which  was  then  a  great  increase,  no  news- 
paper having  more  than  three  hundred  circulation  at  that 
time. 

It  was  at  this  time  that  Benjamin  Franklin  began,  un- 
der the  name  of  "  Silence  Dogood,"  his  contributions  to 
the  paper,  which  are  so  closely  modeled  on  the  essays  of 
Addison  in  the  Spectator  that  it  has  been  suggested  that 
he  had  the  original  book  open  before  him  when  he  wrote 
them. 

The  paper  continued  in  its  course,  criticizing  and  occa- 
sionally referring  with  sarcasm  to  the  government,  until 


THE  FIRST  JOURNALS  AND  THEIR  EDITORS      33 

the  General  Court  took  the  matter  in  hand.  A  committee 
was  appointed  to  consider  the  charges,  and  it  finally  de- 
cided, on  the  issue  of  January  14,  1722,  that  the  tendency 
of  the  paper  was  to  mock  religion  and  government  and 
that,  therefore,  James  Franklin  should  be  forbidden  to 
print  and  publish  his  paper  or  any  other  paper  or  pam- 
phlet like  it  unless  what  was  to  be  printed  was  first  sub- 
mitted to  the  secretary  of  the  province. 

Franklin,  however,  refused  to  submit  his  manuscript  as 
ordered,  with  the  result  that  the  General  Court  ordered 
"  that  James  Franklin  no  longer  print  the  newspaper." 
The  publisher's  friends  held  a  meeting,  and  as  young 
Benjamin  Franklin,  then  only  sixteen  years  of  age,  had 
developed  talent,  first  as  a  printer's  devil  and  then  as  a 
contributor  to  the  paper,  it  was  decided  to  print  the  paper 
in  his  name  and  on  February  11,  1722,  Benjamin  Frank- 
lin made  his  debut  as  editor. 

The  policy  of  the  paper,  however,  continued  to  be  dic- 
tated by  James  Franklin,  and  the  following  summer 
trouble  again  arose  between  the  paper  and  the  govern- 
ment when  the  Courant  criticized  the  Massachusetts  au- 
thorities for  their  failure  to  give  chase  to  a  pirate  that  had 
appeared  off  Block  Island.  The  authorities  decided  '*  that 
the  said  paragraphs  are  a  high  affront  to  this  govern- 
ment "  and  ordered  Franklin  to  be  imprisoned  in  Boston. 
After  a  week's  confinement,  the  records  of  the  General 
Court  show  a  petition  from  him  "  that  he  may  have  the 
liberty  of  the  yard,  he  being  indisposed  and  suffering  in 
health  by  the  said  confinement,"  and  upon  his  promising 
not  to  endeavor  to  escape,  this  privilege  was  granted  to 
him. 

Several  weeks  afterward  the  council  again  called  atten- 
tion to  the  free-thinking  character  of  the  writings  in  the 
Courant  and  its  habit  of  reflecting  on  his  majesty's  gov- 


34  HISTORY  OF  JOURNALISM 

ernment,  and  the  publisher  had  to  put  up  one  hundred 
pounds  as  security  for  his  good  behavior. 

Meanwhile  Benjamin  Franklin  and  his  brother  had 
quarreled,  as  he  relates  in  his  biography,  and  in  the  fall 
of  1723  the  enterprising  young  man,  who  was  to  take 
such  a  part  in  the  development  of  this  country,  sailed  for 
New  York  without  a  formal  farewell. 

For  several  years  after  his  departure  the  paper  was 
printed  in  his  name,  but  it  weakened  in  spirit  and,  in  the 
beginning  of  the  year  1727,  it  ceased  publication,  and 
James  Franklin  accepted  the  invitation  of  his  brother 
John  in  Newport  and  moved  his  printing  press  to  that 
colony.^^ 

15  McMaster,  Benjamin  Franklin,  23. 


CHAPTER  IV 

PHILADELPHIA  AND  THE  BRADFORDS 

William  Penn,  the  patron  of  the  press  —  William  Bradford's 
arrival  and  first  trouble  with  the  government  —  His  defense 
of  right  to  print  —  Leaves  colony  for  New  York  —  Return  of 
'Andrew  Bradford  —  His  troubles  with  the  government  — 
First  newspaper  in  Philadelphia — Benjamin  Franklin  and 
his  enterprise. 

In  Boston,  Philadelphia  and  New  York,  American 
journalism  'had  its  beginnings;  strong,  characteristic, 
combative  beginnings,  with  many  clashes  against  the  au- 
thority that  sought  to  stifle  it  —  authority  that  was  in  a 
very  short  time  to  learn  its  power.  In  the  development 
of  the  press  and  the  growth  of  the  power  of  public  opin- 
ion, it  was  in  these  three  cities  that  the  struggle  for 
democratic  ideas  was  keenest,  and  here,  too,  the  brains 
employed  were  the  ablest.  We  also  see  that  journalism 
can  function  at  its  best  only  where  it  is  an  active  partici- 
pant, if  not  the  leader,  in  the  fight  for  democratic  ideas 
and  popular  rights.  In  later  years  the  papers  throughout 
the  country  came  to  be  the  great  organs  of  public  indigna- 
tion and  reform,  achieving  success  for  the  causes  es- 
poused, and  distinction  and  influence  for  the  journalists 
who  dominated  them,  but  only  as  they  were  combative, 
democratic  and  representative  of  the  people. 

"  It  would  be  perfectly  reasonable  to  expect  that  it 
(journalism)  w^ould  reach  its  highest  development  in  the 
cities,"  says  J.  Allen  Smith;  *' here  modern  democracy 
was  born ;  here  w^e  find  the  physical  and  social  conditions 

35 


36  HISTORY  OF  JOURNALISM 

which  facilitate  interchange  of  thought  and  concerted  ac- 
tion on  the  part  of  the  people."  ^  In  these  cities,  too,  we 
find  public  opinion  immediately  affecting  the  daily  life  of 
the  people,  with  the  result  that  the  cities  were  more  demo- 
cratic than  the  country,  where  there  were  no  newspapers. 
It  was  in  Philadelphia  that  the  first  printing  press  out- 
side the  New  England  colonies  was  established  by  Wil- 
liam Bradford,  a  Quaker,  who  came  to  America  with 
Penn's  colonists  in  1682.  Through  his  father-in-law, 
also  a  Quaker,  Bradford,  when  very  young,  met  William 
Penn,  and  the  Great  Proprietary,  when  he  was  about  to 
sail  for  Pennsylvania,  arranged  to  take  young  Bradford 
with  him,  that  the  new  colony  might  have  the  benefit  of 
a  printing  press.  This  was  a  most  fortunate  situation  for 
the  young  man;  not  only  did  he  have  the  patronage  of  a 
great  and  wealthy  proprietor,  but  Penn's  own  taste  in 
literature  and  his  attitude  toward  the  press  were  those 
of  a  man  of  extreme  intelligence  and  liberality.^  While 
it  was  in  Boston  that  the  first  newspaper  was  started,  and 
while  New  York  was  the  scene  of  the  first  notable  battle 
for  the  freedom  of  the  press,  it  is  to  the  Philadelphia  of 
William  Penn  that  one  would  naturally  look  for  leader- 
ship in  the  struggle  for  a  free  press,  and  subsequent  his- 
tory shows  how  small  and  apparently  unimportant  inci- 
dents frequently  contained  within  themselves  the  germ  of 
great  influence.  It  is  true  that  on  the  Mayflower,  with 
the  Pilgrims,  came  Brewster,  with  the  liberality  toward 
the  press  that  one  might  assume  from  his  having  been  a 
publisher  himself,  but  Pennsylvania's  history  can  more 
than  offset  this  by  pointing  to  the  care  that  was  taken  — 
when  the  Welcome  brought  hither  William  Penn  and  the 

*  Spirit  of  American  Government,  251. 

*  Edward  Armstrong,  Address  before  the  Historical  Society  of 
Pennsylvania,  November  8,  1851. 


PHILADELPHIA  AND  THE  BRADFORDS  37 

men  who  were  to  settle  the  new  colony  —  that  a  printer 
should  be  included  among  them,  with  the  understanding 
that  his  was  to  be  a  free  press  and,  above  all,  that  he  was 
to  have  the  power  to  print  the  laws  for  the  people. 

Himself  an  author  of  a  notable  little  book.  The 
Fruits  of  Solitude, —  interesting  even  at  this  day, —  Penn 
showed,  in  times  that  were  dark  indeed,  a  foresight  that 
makes  both  democracy  and  journalism  in  America  his 
everlasting  debtors.  The  great  glory  of  Philadelphia  in 
the  history  of  journalism  is  the  name  of  Franklin,  but  it 
is  hard  to  conceive  Franklin  attracted  to  the  place,  had  it 
not  been  for  the  spirit  of  liberality  with  which  Penn  had 
endowed  his  colony. 

Bradford  went  back  to  London,  after  his  visit  with 
Penn,  and  in  1685  prepared  to  return  here.  He  brought 
with  him  letters  of  introduction  which  stated  that  he  was 
coming  over  to  be  a  printer  of  Quakers'  books  and  asked 
the  Quakers  of  the  colonies  to  patronize  him,  as  they 
would  thus  be  sure  to  get  genuine  Quaker  books  and  not 
those  containing  heresy.  The  first  book  known  to  have 
been  issued  from  his  press  is  an  almanac  for  the  year 
1686,  printed  in  the  latter  part  of  1685.  Bradford,  with 
the  genius  of  his  craft,  clashed  with  the  government  in 
this  publication,  by  referring  to  Penn  as  "  Lord  Penn." 
The  Provincial  Council  summoned  the  man  who  had 
edited  the  almanac  for  Bradford,  ordered  the  printer  to 
blot  out  the  words  "  Lord  Penn  "  and  warned  him  that 
he  "  was  not  to  print  anything  but  what  shall  have  lycence 
from  ye  Council."  ^ 

In  the  early  part  of  1688,  at  the  instance  of  some  of  the 

women  of  Philadelphia  who  were  opposed  to  the  holding 

of  a  fair  too  far  from  the  fashionable  section  of  the  city, 

Bradford  printed  a  paper  of  protest  which  resulted  in 

^Minutes  of  Provincial  Council,  i,  115. 


38  HISTORY  OF  JOURNALISM 

bringing  his  efforts  once  more  to  the  notice  of  the  Coun- 
cil; this  time,  however,  it  was  the  subscribejs  who  were 
called  before  them. 

Two  years  later  the  Governor  and  the  people  became 
involved  in  a  dispute  as  to  the  extent  of  their  respective 
rights,  and  one  of  the  leaders  of  the  colony,  Joseph  Grow- 
den,  had  Bradford  print  the  charter.  Party  spirit  ran 
high,  and  Bradford,  scenting  trouble,  was  careful  enough 
to  send  out  the  work  without  his  imprint.  Once  more  he 
was  in  clash  with  the  government,  this  time  called  by  the 
Governor,  as  he  says,  to  accuse  himself.  In  the  course 
of  an  ingenious  evasion,  he  declared  that  one  of  the  things 
for  which  William  Penn  had  asked  him  to  come  to  the 
colony  was  to  print  the  laws,  and  the  only  reason  why  he 
had  not  printed  them  was  that  he  had  no  particular  orders 
to  do  so.  Bradford  held  out  for  the  right  to  print  the 
laws,  declaring  that  the  charter  had  been  printed  in  Eng- 
land, and  showed  a  fine  sense  of  his  rights  by  refusing  to 
answer  questions  until  he  was  faced  by  his  accuser. "* 

In  his  next  clash  with  the  authorities  Bradford,  on  trial 
for  printing  a  seditious  pamphlet  for  one  of  the  warring 
factions,  showed  that  he  had  a  fundamental  understand- 
ing of  the  rights  of  publishers.  He  conducted  his  own 
examination,  and  objected  to  two  of  the  jurors  on  the 
ground  that  they  had  already  formed  an  opinion.  In  the 
conduct  of  his  case,  he  laid  the  ground-cloth  for  the 
many  libel  dramas  that  were  to  follow  —  notably^  in  the 
case  of  Zenger  —  the  successful  issue  of  which  meant  so 
much  to  the  colonies  in  their  struggle  for  freedom. 

Bradford  was  permitted  to  go  free,  but  as  he  had  been 
interfered  with  from  the  first  publication  he  had  attempt- 
ed, he  was  heartily  sick  of  the  colony,  especially  as  the 

*An  account  of  this   interview   in   Bradford's   own  handwriting 
now  hangs  in  the  Hall  of  the  New  York  Historical  Society. 


PHILADELPHIA  AND  THE  BRADFORDS  39 

Quakers  themselves,  in  their  church  council,  had  decided 
that  he  ought  to  submit  to  them  in  addition  to  the  censor- 
ship already  established  by  the  government.  The  council 
of  the  City  of  New  York  in  1693,  acquainted  with  the 
conditions  in  Philadelphia,  passed  a  resolution  at  the  insti- 
gation of  Governor  Fletcher,  declaring  that  "  if  a  printer 
will  come  and  settle  in  the  City  of  New  York  for  the 
printing  of  our  Acts  of  Assembly  and  Publick  Papers  " 
they  will  give  him  forty  pounds  for  his  salary  and  he 
could  "  have  the  benefit  of  his  printing  besides  what 
serves  the  Publick."     Bradford  promptly  accepted. 

This  was  the  beginning  in  New  York,  a  beginning  most 
auspicious  and  interesting;  reflecting  great  credit  on 
Fletcher,  who,  though  not  the  most  liberal  or  understand- 
ing of  governors,  was  nevertheless  a  good  friend  to  Brad- 
ford, and  saw  to  it,  as  long  as  he  was  in  office,  that  the 
printer  received  those  increases  in  salary  and  those  little 
extra  allowances  which  were  so  welcome,  even  to  a  pio- 
neer in  the  cause  of  journalism  and  the  free  press. 

From  this  time  to  the  establishment,  in  1725,  of  the 
Nezv  York  Gazette,  the  first  newspaper  in  New  York 
City,  Bradford's  life  was  uneventful,  although  fairly  suc- 
cessful. He  became  a  well-known  vestryman  of  Trinity 
Church  and  was  a  conspicuous  person  in  the  community, 
of  decidedly  different  mold  from  the  complaining  and 
complacent  Campbell  of  Boston.  In  1709,  with  an  eye  to 
the  future,  he  sought  to  establish  his  son  Andrew,  who 
had  now  come  to  man's  estate,  in  Rhode  Island,  where 
the  prospects  of  liberal  treatment  were  good.  The  nego- 
tiations evidently  came  to  naught,  and  in  1712  Andrew 
was  established  in  Philadelphia,  as  his  father's  partner. 

Here,  temporarily,  we  must  leave  old  Bradford,  but 
not  without  commenting  on  the  ability  and  foresight  of 
the  man.     If  the  pioneers  of  journalism  were  in  Boston, 


40  HISTORY  OF  JOURNAUSM 

it  was  Philadelphia  and  New  York,  but  especially  Phila- 
delphia, that  first  produced  the  men  who  gave  it  vigor, 
force,  reason  and  character. 

Andrew  Bradford  was  seven  years  of  age  when  his 
father  moved  to  New  York,  where,  under  his  tutelage,  the 
boy  was  versed  in  the  trade  that  he  was  destined  to  follow. 
In  1712  he  moved  back  to  Philadelphia,  and  in  17 14,  by 
arrangement  with  the  assembly,  he  issued  **  Bradford's 
Law  of  1714." 

From  1 7 12  until  Samuel  Keimer,  Benjamin  Franklin's 
first  employer,  appeared  on  the  scene  in  1723,  Bradford 
was  the  only  printer  in  Pennsylvania.  In  addition  to  his 
printing,  he  ran  what  would  to-day  be  called  a  general 
store,  where  he  sold,  as  he  advertised,  a  variety  of  goods 
from  "  beaver  hats  "  to  "  pickled  sturgeon." 

Although  his  father,  from  the  time  of  his  removal  to 
New  York  and  his  occupation  of  the  position  of  official 
printer  to  the  end  of  his  life,  showed  Tory  leanings,  An- 
drew Bradford  was  decidedly  of  the  Whig  faith.  There 
is,  however,  consistency  in  the  fact  that  it  was  the  son, 
representing  the  spirit  of  free  discussion,  who  started  a 
newspaper  in  Philadelphia  several  years  before  the  father 
started  one  in  New  York. 

The  American  Weekly  Mercury,  the  third  paper  in  the 
colonies,  made  its  first  appearance  on  December  22,  1719. 
It  resembled  the  New  England  journals,  was  15  inches  by 
I2j^  inches  in  size,  and  appeared  weekly,  generally  on 
Tuesday.  Like  the  New  England  papers,  it  printed  little 
of  the  local  news,  with  which  everybody  was  supposed  to 
be  conversant,  but  was  made  up  principally  of  extracts 
from  foreign  journals. 

Like  his  father  in  his  younger  days,  Andrew  Bradford 
was  soon  in  a  clash  with  the  government,  for  in'  the  issue 
of  January  2,  1721,  a  paragraph  appeared  expressing  the 


PHILADELPHIA  AND  THE  BRADFdRDS  41 

hope  that  the  General  Assembly  ''  will  find  some  effectual 
remedy  to  revive  the  dying  credit  of  the  Province  and 
restore  to  us  our  former  happy  circumstances."  For 
this  implied  criticism  he  was  haled  before  the  Provincial 
Council,  where  his  defense  was  that  the  paragraph  had 
been  written  and  inserted  without  his  knowledge  by  a 
journeyman. 

In  1 72 1  Andrew  Bradford  eliminated  the  name  of  his 
former  partner,  John  Cobson,  and  from  that  time  on  the 
imprint  read  "  Philadelphia :  printed  and  sold  by  Andrew 
Bradford  at  the  Bible  in  Second  Street  and  also  by  Wil- 
liam Bradford  in  New  York  where  advertisements  are 
taken  in,"  the  fact  of  the  same  paper  being  sold  in  New 
York  and  Philadelphia  tending  to  broaden  the  views  and 
the  outlook  of  the  citizens  of  both  cities. 

It  is  interesting  to  note  Bradford's  "  editorials,"  as 
showing  that  the  editors,  even  in  those  early  days  when 
there  were  but  three  or  four  of  them  and  they  were  far 
apart,  were  watching  each  other;  and  that  while  James 
Franklin  was  having  his  trouble  with  the  Colonial  Govern- 
ment in  New  England,  Andrew  Bradford,  whom  Benja- 
min Franklin  calls  illiterate,  was  defending  the  New  Eng- 
land Coiirant  and  its  publishers. 

"  My  Lord  Coke  observes,"  commented  Bradford,  in 
the  first  newspaper  defense  of  a  free  press,  "  that  to  pun- 
ish first,  and  then  inquire,  the  law  abhors;  but  here  Mr. 
Franklin  has  a  severe  sentence  passed  upon  him,  even  to 
the  taking  away  of  his  livelihood,  without  being  called  to 
make  an  answer.  An  indifferent  person  would  judge  by 
this  vote  against  courts,  that  the  Assembly  of  Massachu- 
setts Bay  is  made  up  of  oppressors  and  bigots,  who 
make  religion  the  only  engine  of  destruction  to  the  people, 
and  the  rather  because  the  first  letter  in  the  Courant,  of 
the  14th  of  January,  which  the  assembly  censures,  so  nat- 


42  HISTORY  OF  JOURNALISM 

urally  represents  and  expresses  the  hypocritical  pretend- 
ers to  reHgion.  This  much  we  could  not  forbear  saying, 
out  of  compassion  to  the  distressed  people  of  the  prov- 
ince, who  must  resign  all  pretences  to  sense  and  reason, 
and  submit  to  the  tyranny  of  priestcraft  and  hypocrisy."  ^ 

Naturally,  therefore,  when  young  Benjamin  Franklin 
ran  away  from  Boston  and  arrived  in  New  York,  it  was 
to  William  Bradford,  a  printer  famous  even  to  young 
Franklin,  that  he  applied  for  work.  Franklin  tells  us 
that  Bradford  advised  him  to  go  to  Philadelphia,  inform- 
ing him  that  his  son  Andrew  had  lost  his  only  workman. 
When  he  called  at  Andrew's  house  in  Philadelphia,  father 
Bradford  had  arrived  in  Philadelphia  before  him,  having 
traveled  on  horseback.  He  introduced  Franklin  to  his 
son,  who  received  him  civilly  and  gave  him  a  breakfast. 
Bradford  had  at  the  time  no  need  for  a  new  employee, 
but  told  Franklin  of  another  printer  in  town,  one  Keimer, 
who  perhaps  would  employ  him.  If  not,  Franklin  was 
told,  he  would  be  welcome  to  lodge  at  Bradford's  house, 
and  a  little  work  would  be  found  for  him  to  do  now  and 
then  until  the  situation  bettered.  This  is  Franklin's  own 
statement ;  yet  he  does  not  hesitate  to  refer  slightingly  to 
both  the  son  and  the  older  man,  who  even  went  to  the 
trouble  of  taking  him  to  see  the  new  printer,  Keimer. 

It  was  while  he  was  in  this  same  Keimer's  office  that 
Franklin  came  under  the  notice  of  the  Governor  of  Penn- 
sylvania, Sir  William  Keith,  who  took  a  fancy  to  him 
and  proposed  one  day  "  over  the  Madeira "  that  the 
young  man  should  set  up  a  printing  shop  of  his  own.  On 
the  strength  of  Keith's  promises  Franklin  went  abroad 
to  purchase  supplies,  but  when  he  arrived  in  London 
found  that  Keith  had  no  credit  there.  For  eighteen 
months  he  worked  in  various  printing-houses  and,  the 

'^  Mercury,  February  26,  1723. 


PHILADELPHIA  AND  THE  BRADFORDS  43 

venture  into  commercial  life  having  failed,  went  back  to 
Philadelphia  and  worked  for  Keimer  until  1728,  when 
he  and  one  of  his  associates,  Hugh  Meredith,  set  up  a 
printing  plant  for  themselves.  He  was  hardly  estab- 
lished in  this  when  the  idea  of  a  newspaper  of  his  own 
came  to  him.  He  was  preparing  to  issue  it  when  his 
former  employer,  Keimer,  hearing  of  the  project,  antici- 
pated them,  and  issued,  in  1728,  the  first  number  of  the 
Universal  Instructor  in  All  Arts  and  Sciences,  or  the 
Pennsylvania  Gazette. 

This  publication,  as  might  be  expected  from  its  origin 
and  the  ignorance  with  which  Franklin  endows  Keimer, 
made  little  impression  on  the  community.  Keimer  strug- 
gled along  up  to  the  twenty-seventh  number  of  the  paper, 
when  there  was  a  week's  delay,  which  he  later  explained 
as  being  due  to  the  fact  that  he  had  been  "  awak'd  when 
fast  asleep  in  Bed,  about  Eleven  at  Night,  over-tir'd  with 
the  Labour  of  the  Day,  and  taken  away  from  my  Dwell- 
ing, by  a  Writ  and  Summons,  it  being  based  and  confi- 
dently given  out,  that  I  was  that  very  Night  about  to  run 
away,  tho'  there  was  not  the  least  Colour  or  Ground  for 
such  a  vile  Report.'' 

He  was  released,  through  the  forbearance  of  his  cred- 
itors, and  struggled  on  until  number  39,  when,  the  circu- 
lation being  reduced  to  ninety  subscribers,  the  paper  was 
sold  for  a  small  price  to  Franklin  and  his  partner  Mere- 
dith, and  continued  as  the  Pennsylvania  Gazette,  the  sec- 
ond paper  established  in  Pennsylvania. 

Of  Franklin,  as  editor  and  publisher  of  his  own  paper, 
it  is  to  be  said  that,  in  this  year,  1728,  he  came  to  his 
task  —  one  might  even  say  his  mission  —  unusually  well 
equipped.  From  the  age  of  twelve,  when  he  was  ap- 
prentice to  his  brother  James,  to  the  time  when  he  took 
hold  of  the  Pennsylvania  Gazette,  he  had  been  steadily 


44  HISTORY  OF  JOURNALISM 

gaining  experience  such  as  had  fallen  to  the  lot  of  no 
other  man  in  the  colonies.  He  tells  us  himself  that  he 
studied  style  by  copying  Addison  and  Steele  when  a  mere 
child.  With  his  brother,  he  had  suffered  because  of  the 
autocratic  spirit  of  the  times  when  James  Franklin  and 
his  associates  were  making,  in  their  small  way,  an  inter- 
esting beginning  in  the  battle  for  a  free  press. 

He  knew  the  Brad  fords,  William  and  Andrew,  person- 
ally. He  knew  the  personnel  of  the  printers  in  the  col- 
onies as  probably  no  other  man  did.  He  had  had  an  in- 
teresting and  intensive  training  in  England  for  eighteen 
months,  and  the  philosophical  bent  that  he  showed  in  the 
first  essay  written  for  his  brother's  paper,  the  New  Eng- 
land Courant,  was  now  to  be  given  full  sway,  with  a  de- 
velopment that  was  to  hold  two  continents  in  rapt  ad- 
miration and  a  result  that  was  to  make  his  native  country 
his  everlasting  debtor,  for  Franklin,  the  great  editorial- 
political  genius  used  the  success  that  came  to  him  to  swell 
the  current  of  influence  that  was  making  for  liberty  and 
democracy. 

In  the  meantime  the  advent  of  Bradford  the  elder 
marked  the  beginning  of  truly  historical  developments  in 
the  colony  of  New  York. 


CHAPTER   V 

PRINTING  IN  NEW  YORK  — THE  ZENGER  TRIAL 

Early  political  divisions  —  Oppression  by  the  Conquerors  — 
Foundation  for  the  Whig  party  —  William  Bradford  invited 
to  the  colony  —  New  York  Gazette,  the  first  paper  —  Malad- 
ministration of  Governor  Cosby  —  Zenger  brings  out  the 
Joiirrial  —  Attacks  government  —  His  arrest  and  trial  —  An- 
drew Hamilton's  great  speech  —  Its  importance  in  the  history 
of  the  country. 

While  the  printing  press  did  not  appear  in  New  York 
Colony  until  some  years  after  there  had  been  presses  in 
Massachusetts  —  and  even  in  Pennsylvania,  a  colony  set- 
tled after  New  York  —  there  was,  in  the  Dutch  settle- 
ment, greater  encouragement  for  a  free  press  than  in 
either  of  the  other  two,  at  least  in  the  beginning.  This 
was  partly  due  to  the  fact  that,  when  the  Dutch  colony 
had  been  taken  over  by  the  English,  there  had  grown  up 
two  parties  more  equally  divided  than  was  the  case  in 
any  of  the  other  colonies  —  parties  divided  somewhat  as  ^ 
the  Whigs  and  the  Tories  later  were.  The  governing^ 
class  was  arrogant,  inasmuch  as  the  government  repre- 
sented the  conquerors;  on  the  other  hand,  the  governed 
class  in  the  colony  of  New  York,  representing  some  of 
the  rich  burghers  and  old  Dutch  families,  was  not  as 
docile  as  the  laboring  and  governed  class  of  other  col- 
onies. Having  been,  in  former  days,  the  rulers  of  the 
colony,  and  therefore  accustomed  to  public  discussion,  its 
members  were  quick  to  use  the  printing  press  to  air  their 
grievances. 

45 


46  HISTORY  OF  JOURNALISM 

An  early  evidence  of  liberality  in  the  new  colony  is 
shown  by  Benjamin  Fletcher,  who,  when  he  became  Gov- 
ernor of  New  York  in  1692,  realized  that  both  Massachu- 
setts and  Pennsylvania  had  advanced  more  rapidly  in  this 
direction  than  had  New  York,  and  therefore  caused  to 
be  passed  by  the  assembly  a  law  which  was  practically  an 
invitation  to  William  Bradford  of  Philadelphia  to  set  up 
his  printing  press  in  New  York.  In  1696  Fletcher  re- 
printed an  issue  of  the  London  Gazette  which  contained 
an  account  of  the  engagement  with  the  French  preceding 
the  peace  of  Ryswick.^ 

As  early  as  1668,  Governor  Lovelace,  the  second  Eng- 
lish Governor,  had  expressed  a  desire  to  have  a  printer 
in  the  colony,  and  he  tried  to  get  one  from  Boston.^ 
Following  the  accession  of  James  the  Second,  one  of  the 
first  instructions  given  to  Governor  Dongan  in  1686  was 
to  see  that  no  one  did  any  printing  without  first  obtain- 
ing a  license.  With  the  brighter  prospects  which  fol- 
lowed the  Revolution  of  1688,  Governor  Fletcher  had 
the  Council  pass,  on  March  23,  1693,  the  resolution  above 
referred  to,  by  which  *'  the  sum  of  £40  current  money  of 
New  York  per  annum  for  his  salary  "  was  offered  to  any 
printer  who  would  settle  in  the  colony  and  print  the  Acts 
of  Assembly.^ 

Bradford,  tired  out  with  continual  wrangling  with  the 
authorities  in  Pennsylvania,  accepted  this  offer,  as  we 
have  seen,  and  the  following  October  the  first  warrant 
for  his  press  was  issued. 

Although  the  printer  had  been  invited  by  a  representa- 
tive of  the  government,  it  was  not  long  before  those  op- 
posed to  the  interests  of  the  Crown  attempted  to  use  the 

1  Hudson,  Journalism  in  the  United  States,  50. 

2  Wallace,  Address  on  William  Bradford,  60. 
s  Council  Minutes,  vi,  182. 


PRINTING  IN  NEW  YORK  47 

press.  Two  years  after  Bradford  was  established,  the 
Assembly  asked  permission  of  the  Governor  "  to  print 
their  journal/'  a  request  that  resulted  in  the  House  being 
dissolved.  But  while  Fletcher  was  in  power,  Bradford's 
course  was  prosperous  and  smooth,  and  continued  so  until 
Fletcher  was  succeeded  by  the  Earl  of  Bellomont,  who, 
being  a  reformer,  believed  in  low  salaries  and  much  work. 

A  clash  came  after  the  Earl  had  had  a  long  conference 
with  the  Indians  —  "  the  greatest  fatigue  I  ever  under- 
went in  my  whole  life,"  he  wrote.  "  I  was  shut  up  in  a 
closed  chamber  wath  sixty  Sachems  who,  besides  a  stench 
of  bear's  grease  w^ith  which  they  plentifully  daubed  them- 
selves, were  continually  either  smoking  or  drinking  drams 
of  rum  —  for  eight  days."  He  decided  that  this  heroic 
performance  justified  a  printed  report.  Bradford,  how- 
ever, refused  to  print  it,  as  he  considered  it  a  private 
diary  and  not  a  public  paper  coming  wdthin  his  contract. 
Bellomont  retaliated  by  charging  Bradford  with  neglect- 
ing his  duty,  and  appointed  one  Abraham  Gouverneur  in 
his  place.  Bradford  w^on,  however,  by  anticipating  the 
advice  of  Comte  de  Buffy:  "Take  good  care  of  your- 
self; be  persuaded  that  if  you  wall  only  let  your  adver- 
sary die  before  you,  it  is  he,  not  you,  who  has  lost  the 
case."  Bellomont  died  before  he  was  able  to  do  any 
serious  damage  to  Bradford,  or  to  diminish  his  influence 
and  lessen  his  power  in  the  colony. 

We  have  told  in  the  previous  chapter  how^  the  printer 
increased  his  business  and  how  he  sought,  when  his  son 
Andrew  became  of  age,  to  start  the  young  man's  career 
in  Rhode  Island,  finally  establishing  him  in  Philadelphia 
in  1 71 2.  Following  the  new  movement  of  the  day,  and 
imitating  Andrew  in  Philadelphia,  at  the  age  of  sixty- 
two  Bradford  established  the  first  newspaper  in  New 
York;  in  1728,  having  a  paper  in  Philadelphia  owned  by 


48  HISTORY  OF  JOURNALISM 

his  son  and  one  in  New  York  owned  by  himself,  he  pur- 
chased a  large  paper  factory  in  Elizabethtown  and  thus 
rendered  both  establishments  independent  of  the  British 
manufacturers.  Bradford  edited  his  own  paper  until  he 
was  eighty  years  of  age,  when  he  retired,  transferring  it 
to  James  Parker,  by  whom  it  was  conducted  after  1743. 

Bradford's  very  partisanship  had  its  usefulness  to  the 
opponents  of  the  Colonial  Government,  and  when  the 
crisis  came, —  as  it  did  over  a  mere  matter  of  salary  —  it 
was  from  his  office  and  by  his  apprentice,  John  Peter 
Zenger,  that  the  most  effective  blow  was  struck  at  the 
despotism  of  the  government. 

Between  the  death  of  Governor  Montgomery,  on  June 
30,  1 73 1,  and  the  arrival  of  Governor  Cosby  on  Septem- 
ber 18,  1732,  Rip  Van  Dam,  the  senior  member  of  the 
Council,  occupied  the  executive  chair.  Over  a  dispute  as 
to  who  should  receive  the  fees  of  the  office,  which 
amounted  to  about  £6000,  the  Governor  pro  tern,  and 
Cosby  went  to  court.  In  order  to  carry  bis  case,  the  Gov- 
ernor removed  Chief  Justice  Morris  and  appointed  James 
DeLancey  in  his  place,  an  act  of  arrogance  that  caused  a 
great  deal  of  acrimony  among  the  colonists.  Cosby 
showed  his  contempt  for  them  in  other  ways,  calling  them, 
in  an  official  report,  "A  lazy,  good-for-nothing  crowd, 
filled  with  the  spirit  of  insubordination,"'*  who  were 
drawing  their  inspiration,  he  declared,  from  trouble  mak- 
ers in  Boston.  The  opposition  decided  to  have  their  own 
paper,  and  on  the  15th  of  November,  1733,  they  brought 
out  the  first  number  of  the  New  York  Weekly  Journal 
under  the  auspices  of  John  Peter  Zenger,  an  apprentice  of 
Bradford,  who  had  come  to  him  as  a  poor  young  immi- 
grant. 

The  records  of  Zenger's  life  are  very  meager.     He 

*  New  York  Documents,  v,  937. 


PRINTING  IN  NEW  YORK  49 

was  one  of  a  large  number  of  Palatines  who  were  sent  to 
America  in  1710  by  Queen  Anne.  His  mother,  his  sis- 
ter, and  hjs  younger  brother  arrived  with  him,  the  father 
of  the  family  having  died  on  shipboard.  After  serving 
an  apprenticeship  of  eight  years  with  Bradford,  Zenger 
went  to  Maryland  to  try  his  fortunes  there,  but  met  with 
little  success.  For  a  few  years  he  struggled  at  his  trade ; 
he  joined  in  partnership  with  Bradford  in  1725,  but  the 
partnership  must  have  been  of  short  duration,  as  there  is 
only  one  book  extant  showing  the  imprint  of  their  joint 
names.  In  1726  Zenger,  a  poor,  struggling  German 
printer,  started  in  business  for  himself.  His  shop  was 
of  small  size  and  he  printed  a  few  political  tracts  and  a 
number  of  unimportant  books,  -principally  theological  in 
character  and  written  in  Dutch.  In  1730  he  printed  the 
first  arithmetic  published  in  the  colony. 

In  the  very  first  issue  of  the  New  York  Weekly  Journal 
there  appeared  an  article  on  the  liberty  of  the  press  which 
was  used  as  the  text  for  many  others,  all  filled  with  di- 
rect allusions  to  Cosby  and  his  conduct.  Several  num- 
bers were  condemned  by  Cosby  to  be  burned  as  contain- 
ing **  Scurrilous,  Scandalous  and  Virulent  Reflections,'* 
—  these  were  numbers  7,  47,  48  and  49.^  The  first  of 
these  was  largely  taken  up  with  a  bold  and  vigorous  criti- 
cism of  the  Governor  for  permitting  a  French  man-o'- 
war  to  enter  New  York  Harbor  —  ostensibly  for  the  pur- 
pose of  provisioning,  but  more  likely  in  order,  the  Journal 
asserted,  to  spy  upon  the  works  and  fortifications  of  New 
York.  These  numbers  also  contain  critical  mention  of 
the  fact  that  the  Governor  invited  but  a  few  members  of 

5  Number   7,  December  17,  1733. 
Number  47,  September  23,  1734. 
Number  48,  September  30,  1734, 
Number  49,  October  7,  1734. 


50  HISTORY  OF  JOURNALISM 

the  Council  to  sit  in  session  with  him  on  matters  of  State, 
and  that  these  invariably  were  his  appointejes  and  favo- 
rites. Numbers  47,  48  and  49  were  primarily  taken  up 
with  the  publication  of  an  anonymous  letter,  purporting 
to  be  from  a  New  Jersey  settler  who  undertook  to  criti- 
cize and  hold  up  to  ridicule  "  the  Nullity  of  Law  "  in 
New  York  Province  and  the  maladministration  of  Gov- 
ernor Cosby. 

As  a  result  of  these  attacks,  Cosby  issued  a  proclama- 
tion offering  a  reward  of  £50  for  the  discovery  of  the 
author  of  said  ''  Scandalous,  Virulent  and  Seditious  Re- 
flections," and  on  Sunday,  November  17,  1734,  Zenger 
was  arrested  on  a  charge  of  libel. 

When  brought  before  the  Chief  Justice  on  November 
20th,  his  bail  was  fixed  at  £800,  which  he  was  unable  to 
raise,  but  he  was  finally  allowed  to  have  pen,  ink,  and 
paper,  which  he  had  been  previously  denied.  For  the  next 
nine  months,  Zenger  edited  his  paper  in  jail. 

It  has  been  said  that  Zenger  deserved  little  credit  for 
his  fight  for  a  free  press,  as  he  was  a  poor  printer  with- 
out much  education  and  the  articles  that  did  all  the  dam- 
age were  written  by  wealthy  and  cultivated  gentlemen  of 
the  period.^  It  is  to  be  sincerely  hoped  that  this  was  not 
so,  in  view  of  the  fact  that  the  important  and  wealthy  men 
who  took  part  in  Zenger's  fight  allowed  him,  for  nine 
months,  to  languish  in  jail  because  of  their  failure  to 
raise  the  amount  of  his  bail.  Zenger  was  really  a  strong, 
courageous  citizen,  who,  while  he  may  not  have  written 
some  of  the  learned  articles  in  his  paper,  was  the  one  who 
stood  for  them,  showing  a  great  deal  more  character  and 
vigor  than  the  anonymous,  if  educated,  contributors.  It 
is  a  sad  comment  on  their  gentle  descent  that  they  allowed 
another  man  to  go  to  jail  for  what  they  had  written. 

«  Rutherford,  John  Peter  Zenger. 


PRINTING  IN  NEW  YORK  51 

In  the  first  issue  after  his  arrest  Zenger  apologized  for 
missing  an  issue,  on  the  ground  that,  not  only  had  he  been 
without  p'en,  ink,  and  paper,  but  he  had  been  held  incom- 
unicado.  He  promised  them  **  by  the  liberty  of  speaking 
to  my  servants  through  the  hole  of  the  door  of  the  prison 
to  entertain  you  with  my  weekly  journal  as  formerly," 
and  this  he  did  until  the  trial  took  place,  on  August  4, 

1735. 
When  the  trial  came  up  Zenger's  counsel,   William 

Smith  and  James  Alexander,  denied  the  competency  of 

Chief  Justice  DeLancey  and  of  Judge  Phillips  who  sat 

with  him,  which  objections  were  treated  by  DeLancey  as 

contempt  of  court,  and  both  lawyers  were  excluded,  by 

another  order,  from  further  practice. 

To  the  amazement  of  the  court  and  of  Cosby's  party, 
when  the  case  finally  came  to  trial  Andrew  Hamilton,  the 
celebrated  lawyer  of  Philadelphia  —  the  ablest  attorney 
in  the  colonies,  and  a  warm  personal  friend  of  Benjamin 
Franklin  —  walked  into  court  to  defend  Zenger. 

Hamilton  is  said  to  have  been  eighty  years  of  age  at 
this  time,  and  he  was  known  throughout  the  colonies  as  a 
man  of  great  ability.  There  was  a  romantic  mystery 
about  him.  It  was  known  that  Hamilton  was  not  his 
real  name.  It  was  said  that  he  had  fled  from  Europe 
after  having  killed  some  one  of  importance  in  a  duel. 
He  was  unquestionably  of  gentle  blood,  but  whatever  the 
cause  of  the  mystery,  he  carried  his  secret  to  the  grave. 
He  had  acquired  a  handsome  practice  and  much  wealth 
in  the  colonies,  and  in  1712  had  gone  to  England,  where 
he  was  admitted  to  the  bar.  On  one  of  his  trips  to  Eu- 
rope he  sailed  with  Benjamin  Franklin. 

The  appearance  of  Hamilton  dum founded  the  Cosby 
adherents.  He  opened  the  case  by  offering  to  prove  the 
truth  of  the  statements  in  the  alleged  libel.     This  was 


52  HISTORY  OF  JOURNALISM 

overruled  by  DeLancey,  who,  as  an  appointee  of  Cosby, 
was  naturally  on  the  side  of  the  Governor.     As  a  mat- 
ter of  fact,  though,  the  law  as  it  then  stood  was  on  the 
]  side  of  the  Chief  Justice.'^ 

From  the  time  of  the  Star  Chamber  there  had  been 
little  addition  to,  or  development  of  the  law  with  regard 
to  seditious  offenses.  It  was  under  the  law  as  laid  down 
by  Lord  Chief  Justice  Holt  that  Zenger  was  being  tried : 
"If  people  should  not  be  called  to  account  for  possessing 
the  people  with  an  ill  opinion  of  the  government,  no 
government  can  subsist.  For  it  is  necessary  for  all  gov- 
ernments that  the  people  should  have  a  good  opinion 
of  it."  « 

This  was  still  the  law  of  England,  and  necessarily  of 
the  colonies.  It  is  said  that  a  great  deal  of  the  vivacity 
and  energy  used  at  that  time  in  cases  where  the  liberty 
of  the  press  was  concerned,  was  due  to  the  fact  that  the 
lawyers  realized  the  insecurity  of  the  legal  foundation  of 
that  liberty.^  We  have  seen  how  William  Bradford  was 
tried  under  this  law,  but  in  his  case  the  jury  was  in- 
structed to  find  whether  the  papers  printed  by  Bradford 
tended  to  weaken  the  hands  of  the  magistrates  as  well  as 
to  find  whether  Bradford  printed  it.  "  Comme  la  virite, 
Verreur  a  ses  heros."  ^^ 

The  law  had  already  been  tested  and  accepted  in  the 
colonies.  In  1702  Colonel  Nicholas  Bayard  was  charged 
with  alleged  libels  which  were  not  put  in  evidence  but 
which  were  declared  to  contain  charges  that  *'  the  hottest 
and  ignorantest  of  the  people  were  put  in  places  of  trust," 
and  on  this  verbal  statement  Colonel  Bayard  was  sen- 

^  Lewis,  Great  American  Lawyers,  i,  32. 

•  Howell's  State  Trials,  xiv^  1128. 

s  Stephen,  History  of  the  Criminal  Law  of  England,  ii,  349. 

10  Lewis,  Great  American  Lawyers,  i,  35. 


PRINTING  IN  NEW  YORK  53 

tenced  to  be  hanged,  drawn  and  quartered.  The  sen- 
tence, however,  was  not  carried  out. 

Hamilton,  therefore,  approached  his  trial  knowing  well 
that  he  must  acquit  Zenger,  not  by  the  law,  but  by  the 
feeling  in  the  community  —  the  growing  feeling  among 
human  beings  that  the  law  was  wrong. 

It  was  to  this  feeling  that  he  appealed  —  in  a  larger 
sense  it  was  to  the  yet  unborn  feeling  of  Nationalism 
that  he  addressed  himself,  and  in  this  connection  alone  his 
speech  is  one  of  the  important  documents  in  the  history 
of  the  rise  of  the  American  republic.  But  it  was  a  novel 
doctrine  that  he  enunciated;  even  to  those  whose  interest 
he  espoused  it  must  have  come  with  a  shock  when  he 
declared,  "  What  strange  doctrine  is  it  to  press  every- 
thing for  law  here  which  is  so  in  England!  " 

That  Hamilton  appreciated,  as  did  those  who  were 
back  of  Zenger  in  his  fight,  that  it  was  not  a  local  matter, 
or  a  personal  vindication  that  was  sought,  is  shown  by 
one  of  the  concluding  paragraphs : 

"  The  question  before  the  Court,  and  you,  gentlemen 
of  the  Jury,  is  not  of  small  or  private  concern;  it  is  not 
the  cause  of  a  poor  printer,  nor  of  New  York  alone, 
which  you  are  trying.  No!  it  may,  in  its  consequences, 
affect  every  freeman  that  lives  under  a  British  govern- 
ment, on  the  main  of  America." 

He  ridiculed  the  assumption  that  power  must  always 
be  protected.  It  was  a  beautiful  river  while  it  was  kept 
within  bounds,  but  when  it  overflowed  its  banks,  it  bore 
down  all  before  it  and  brought  destruction  and  desolation 
wherever  it  went.  Liberty  was  the  only  bulwark  against 
lawless  power,  which  in  all  ages  had  sacrificed  the  blood 
of  the  best  men  that  had  ever  lived  to  its  wild  and  bound- 
less ambition. 

**  I  hope  to  be  pardoned.  Sir,  for  my  zeal  upon  this 


54  HISTORY  OF  JOURNALISM 

occasion :  it  is  an  old  and  wise  caution  that  '  when  our 
neighbor's  house  is  on  fire,  we  ought  to  take  care  of  our 
own.'  For  though,  blessed  be  God,  I  live  in  a  govern- 
ment where  liberty  is  well  understood,  and  freely  en- 
joyed; yet  experience  has  shown  us  all  (I'm  sure  it  has 
me)  that  a  bad  precedent  in  one  government  is  soon  set 
up  for  an  authority  in  another;  and  therefore  I  cannot 
but  think  it  mine,  and  every  honest  man's  duty  that 
(while  we  pay  all  due  obedience  to  men  in  authority)  we 
ought  at  the  same  time  to  be  on  our  guard  against  power, 
wherever  we  apprehend  that  it  may  affect  ourselves  or 
our  fellow-subjects." 

Hamilton  pleaded  that  he  was  unequal  to  such  an  un- 
dertaking, that  he  labored  under  the  weight  of  many 
years,  and  that  he  was  borne  down  with  great  infirmities 
of  body.  But  old  and  weak  as  he  was,  he  declared  it  to 
be  his  duty,  if  required,  to  go  to  the  utmost  part  of  the 
land,  if  his  service  would  be  of  any  use  to  stop  persecu- 
tions set  on  foot  by  the  government,  to  deprive  people  of 
the  right  of  remonstrating  and  complaining  against  the 
arbitrary  actions  of  men  in  power. 

It  was  usual,  he  continued,  for  men  who  injured  and 
oppressed  the  people,  men  who  provoked  them  to  cry  out 
and  complain,  to  use  those  very  complaints  as  the  foun- 
dation for  new  oppressions  and  persecutions : 

"  It  is  the  best  cause;  it  is  the  cause  of  Liberty;  and  I 
make  no  doubt  but  your  upright  conduct,  this  day,  will 
not  only  entitle  you  to  the  love  and  esteem  of  your  fellow- 
citizens,  but  every  man,  who  prefers  freedom  to  a  life  of 
slavery,  will  bless  and  honor  you,  as  men  who  have  baf- 
fled the  attempt  of  tyranny;  and,  by  an  impartial  and  un- 
corrupt  verdict,  have  laid  a  noble  foundation  for  securing 
to  ourselves,  our  posterity,  and  our  neighbors,  that  to 
which  nature  and  the  laws  of  our  country  have  given  us 


PRINTING  IN  NEW  YORK  55 

a  right  —  the  Hberty  —  both  of  exposing  and  opposing 
arbitrary  power  in  these  parts  of  the  world  at  least,  by 
speaking  and  writing  truth." 

In  a  short  time  the  jury  came  in  with  a  verdict  of 
"  Not  guilty,''  and  ''  there  were  three  huzzas  in  the  hall," 
writes  the  triumphant  Zenger  in  his  own  account  of  the 
trial,  ''  which  was  crowded  with  people ;  and  the  next  day 
I  was  discharged  from  my  imprisonment." 

The  freedom  of  the  city  was  conferred  upon  Hamilton 
by  the  corporation  of  the  City  of  New  York,  and  he  was 
escorted  to  his  sloop  with  drums  and  trumpets,  when  he 
was  about  to  return  to  Philadelphia.^^ 

Not  only  on  this  side  of  the  ocean,  but  in  London,  the 
case  attracted  wide  attention.  It  was  printed  in  New 
York,  Boston  and  London.  The  Pennsylvania  Gazette 
of  May  II,  1738,  published  the  following  letter  from  its 
London  correspondent: 

"  We  have  been  lately  amused  with  Zenger 's  trial  which 
has  become  the  common  topic  of  conversation  in  all  the 
Coffee  Houses,  both  at  the  Court  End  of  the  Town  and 
in  the  City.  The  greatest  men  at  the  Bar  have  openly 
declared  that  the  subject  of  Libels  was  never  so  well 
treated  in  Westminster  Hall,  as  at  New  York.  Our  po- 
litical writers  of  different  factions,  who  never  agree  in 
anything  else,  have  mentioned  this  trial  in  their  public 
writings  with  an  air  of  Rapture  and  Triumph.  A  Go- 
liath in  learning  and  politics  gave  his  opinion  of  Mr. 
Hamilton's  argument  in  these  terms:  'If  it  is  not  law  it 
is  better  than  law,  it  ought  to  be  law  and  will  always  be 
law  wherever  justice  prevails.'  The  trial  has  been  re- 
printed four  times  in  three  months,  and  there  has  been  a 
greater  demand  for  it,  by  all  ranks  and  degrees  of  people, 
than  there  has  been  known  for  any  of  the  most  celebrated 
i^Fiske,  Dutch  and  Quaker  Colonies  in  America,  ii,  25. 


56  HISTORY  OF  JOURNALISM 

performances  of  our  greatest  Geniuses.  We  look  upon 
Zenger's  advocate  as  a  glorious  asserter  of  public  liberty 
and  of  the  rights  and  privileges  of  Britons." 

"  It  is,  however,  worth  remembering,  and  to  his  hon- 
or," said  Horace  Binney,  *'  that  he  was  half  a  century 
before  Mr.  Erskine,  and  the  Declaratory  Act  of  Mr.  Fox, 
in  asserting  the  right  of  a  jury  to  give  a  general  verdict 
in  libel  as  much  as  in  murder,  and  in  spite  of  the  Court, 
the  jury  believed  him  and  acquitted  his  client."  ^^ 

The  view  of  Judge  Cadwalader  ^^  is  more  apprecia- 
tive: 

"  Reform,  through  legislation,  may  be  effected  with 
little  difficulty  as  compared  with  administrative  reforma- 
tion of  jurisprudence  without  legislative  aid.  The  Advo- 
cate who  can  effect  the  latter,  especially  where  political 
considerations  are  involved,  must  be  a  mental  giant. 
One  great  excellence  of  the  system  of  trial  by  jury  is  that 
it  affords  the  means  of  gradually  producing  such  refor- 
mations without  revolutionary  peril.  Propositions  in 
this  argument,  which  were,  strictly  speaking,  untienable  as 
points  of  Anglo-American  Colonial  law,  prevailed,  never- 
theless, at  that  day,  with  the  jury.  These  propositions 
have  been  since  engrafted  permanently  upon  the  political 
jurisprudence  of  this  continent.  If  that  speech  to  the 
jurors  who  acquitted  Zenger  had  never  been  uttered,  or 
had  not  been  reported,  the  framers  of  the  Constitutions 
of  the  several  states  might  not  have  been  prepared  for 
the  adoption  of  provisions  like  that  of  the  Seventh  Sec- 
tion of  the  Declaration  of  Rights  in  Pennsylvania." 

The  immediate  effect  of  the  trial  was  to  increase  Zen- 
ger's popularity  and  the  prestige  of  his  paper,  although 

12  Pennsylvania  Magazine  —  Leaders  of  the  Old  Bar  of  Philadel- 
phia, xiv,  7. 
1^  Pennsylvania  Magazine,  xvi,  18. 


PRINTING  IN  NEW  YORK  57 

there  was  no  visible  evidence  of  this  in  such  things  as  in- 
creased advertising.  But  the  effect  of  his  stand  may  be 
seen  in  the  plea  by  William  Bradford  in  his  journal/* 
that  it  was  not  true,  as  Zenger  had  said  in  his  paper,  that 
Bradford  published  only  such  news  as  the  government 
permitted  him  to  print,  nor  was  it  true  that  he  submitted 
his  news  to  the  Governor  before  printing.  He  declared 
that  he  was  a  free  and  independent  citizen,  printing  the 
news  wherever  he  found  it,  making  mistakes  occasion- 
ally, he  admitted,  but  that  was  the  fault  of  his  inform- 
ants. He  protested  that  the  object  of  the  Zenger  attacks, 
as  far  as  he  was  able  to  understand  them,  was  '*  to  deprive 
me  of  my  bread;  for  who  will  buy  my  papers  if  they  can 
be  induced  to  believe  that  I  have  a  constant  respect  to  (or 
am  constant  publisher  of)  Falsehood  and  Dislike  to 
Truth,"  showing  the  shrewd  old  printer  in  an  amusing 
light,  for  he  was  then  well  along  in  life,  with  printing 
establishments  in  Philadelphia  and  New  York,  a  paper 
mill  in  New  Jersey,  and  no  real  need  to  worry  about  his 
living  or  who  would  buy  his  papers. ^^ 

On  the  other  hand,  sixteen  years  later,  Zenger  having 
died  in  1746  and  the  paper  having  passed  into  the  hands 
of  his  son,  a  real  need  had  fallen  on  a  family  that  a 
grateful  community  should  have  rewarded;  at  least  to 
the  point  of  preventing  such  a  pitiful  plea  as  that  made 
by  John  Zenger,  the  son  —  "I  have  worn  my  clothes 
threadbare  "  waiting  for  delinquent  subscribers,  some  of 
whom,  he  laments,  are  as  much  as  seven  years  behind. 

The  trial  of  Zenger  was  the  forerunner  of  the  great 
struggle  of  the  Revolution,  no  less  an  authority  than 
Gouverneur  Morris  admitted.  It  was  the  greatest  bat- 
tle fought  on  this  side  of  the  water  for  a  free  press  and 

1*  March  28,  1736. 

15  See  Appendix,  Note  B. 


58  HISTORY  OF  JOURNALISM 

a  greater  journalism.  It  was,  however,  no  more  than  a 
continuation  of  the  fight  of  lone  Benjamin. Harris;  and, 
like  Harris,  like  James  Franklin,  who  had  fought  a  simi- 
lar but  less  conspicuous  battle,  we  find  Zenger,  his  work 
done,  passed,  forgotten. 


CHAPTER    VI 
RISE  OF  THE  FOURTH  ESTATE 

Development  of  journalism  in  connection  with  democracy  — 
Growth  of  spirit  of  nationality — First  call  for  congress  of 
colonies  —  Conditions  under  which  press  grew  —  Benjamin 
Franklin  —  His  aid  to  other  printers  —  Progress  slow  in 
South  —  Gradual  withdrawal  of  government  interference  — 
Meeting  of  colonial  congress  —  Franklin's  plan  for  union  of 
colonies. 

In  the  short  period  of  forty-four  years  we  have  seen  a 
new  institution  born  and  developed  into  an  actual  power 
—  the  veritable  creation  of  a  new  Estate.  Like  so  many- 
other  institutions  of  civilization  and  progress,  it  appar- 
ently prospered  in  adversity ;  it  fed  on  the  oppression  that 
would  have  annihilated  it. 

Little  wonder  that  there  was  small  understanding  by 
contemporaries,  or  even  by  those  who  were  able  to  take 
a  view  from  afar,  of  the  importance  of  this  event.  The 
power  of  the  Commons  itself,  the  Third  Estate,  was  al- 
most of  recent  origin;  yet  it  had  taken  centiTries,  with  the 
people  in  continual  warfare  for  their  rights,  to  build  it  up 
and  to  establish  it. 

But  that  there  should  spring  up,  overnight,  as  it  were, 
another  Estate,  a  power  hitherto  unknown, —  a  power 
which,  in  the  language  of  Burke,  should  be  more  power- 
ful than  the  Lords  Spiritual,  the  Lords  Temporal  and  the 
Commons  combined, —  was  something  that  only  the  mind 
of  a  Burke  could  understand.  We  have  seen  that  power 
born  amid  vicissitudes  in  the  wilderness  of  newly  settled 
colonies.     Henceforth  the  history  of  the  country  is  not 

59 


6o  HISTORY  OF  JOURNALISM 

of  kings  nor  battles,  but  largely  of  that  power  and  of 
those  wielding  it. 

From  now  on  the  history  of  journalism  is  not  of  its 
own  struggles,  but  of  the  struggles  of  the  ideas  for  which 
it  stands.  The  thing  itself  is  established.  Henceforth  it 
is  a  story  of  development;  development  in  close  connec- 
tion with  the  idea  of  democracy,  from  which  it  sprang, 
to  whose  influence  it  owed  its  quick  growth,  and  to  which 
in  turn  it  contributed  as  no  other  single  factor  in  civiliza- 
tion, except  Christianity,  has  contributed. 

Politically  and  economically  the  colonies  were  prepar- 
ing for  a  change.  They  were  no  longer  the  separate  set- 
tlements in  which  the  advent  of  the  first  printer  was  an 
historic  advance,  nor  yet  were  they  groping  imitators  of 
conditions  at  home,  where  the  publication  of  a  newspaper 
was  a  revolutionary  breaking  away  from  the  foundations 
of  government.  In  the  time  that  a  bare  half-dozen  pa- 
pers had  been  established,  the  colonists  had  accomplished 
a  complete  volte  face.  Instead  of  looking  to  England 
for  complete  guidance,  there  was,  as  Andrew  Hamilton 
expressed,  a  resentment  at  the  continuous  citation  of  Eng- 
lish authority.  In  Hamilton's  speech  we  find  the  idea 
put  forth  —  for  the  first  time,  I  believe  —  that,  if  the  law 
of  the  mother  country  is  wrong,  the  duty  of  the  colonists 
is  to  correct  it. 

With  such  a  start  in  so  brief  a  time,  it  was  but  a  step 
to  a  declaration  of  complete  independence.  But  as  a 
stepping-stone  to  such  a  declaration,  there  was  necessary 
a  feeling  of  nationahty.  While  the  printing  press  and 
the  new  institution  did  much  to  develop  that  feeling,  the 
main  cause  was  the  necessity  for  protecting  the  lives  of 
the  colonists  —  first  from  the  common  foe  on  the  out- 
side, and  in  the  final  development,  from  the  encroach- 
ments of  the  mother  country  that  had  failed  to  appre- 


RISE  OF  THE  FOURTH  ESTATE  6l 

date  or  understand  the  spirit  and  ideas  that  had  grown 
up  on  this  side  of  the  water. 

Chronologically,  the  beginning  of  the  national  spirit  is 
almost  coincident  with  that  of  journalism.  In  1689,  one 
year  before  the  appearance  of  Harris  as  a  newspaper  pub- 
lisher, Jacob  Leisler,  as  the  self -constituted  representative 
of  the  new  monarchs,  William  and  Mary,  had  seized  the 
government  of  New  York  and,  desiring  to  strengthen 
himself  as  well  as  his  cause  against  the  adherents  of  the 
old  government,  had  appealed  to  the  other  colonies  to 
unite  against  the  opponents  of  the  Prince  of  Orange. 
While  the  answers  to  the  invitation  w^ere  all  cautious, 
there  was  enough  response  to  this  first  inter-colonial  cor- 
respondence of  a  political  nature  to  show,  despite  the 
differences  among  the  colonies,  that  underlying  all  was 
the  *'  powerful  element  of  political  affinity."  ^ 

The  sacking  of  Schenectady  by  the  Indians  and  the 
murder  of  nearly  all  the  inhabitants  the  following  year  - 
brought  about  the  first  call  for  a  general  congress  in 
America.  The  congress  met  and  decided  on  measures  for 
the  protection  of  the  colonists,  but  no  suggestion  was 
made  as  to  a  permanent  organization.  In  fact,  the 
timidity  with  which  the  whole  subject  was  approached 
was  shown  by  the  apologetic  explanation  of  the  Governor 
of  Massachusetts  that  "  the  congress  had  been  called  to 
meet  a  conjuncture,  until  more  express  commands  should 
be  received  from  the  king."  There  was  not  at  this  time 
the  slightest  desire  to  set  up  either  an  independent  nation 
or  independent  colonies;  on  the  contrary,  there  was  evi- 
dent the  most  loyal  devotion  to  the  monarchical  prin- 
ciple.^ 

1  Frothingham,  Rise  of  the  Republic,  85. 

2  February  8,  1690. 

3  Rise  of  the  Republic,  98. 


62  HISTORY  OF  JOURNALISM 

It  was,  indeed,  for  the  purpose  of  serving  the  mon- 
archy that  the  first  suggestion  for  a  union  of  the  colonies 
came  about.  The  declared  object  of  WiMiam  Penn's 
plan  of  1698,  for  two  persons  from  each  colony  to  meet 
once  a  year  for  a  better  understanding  among  the  col- 
onies, was  frankly  that  **  the  English  colonies  may  be 
more  useful  to  the  crown."  *  Charles  Davenant  com- 
mended this  plan  of  Penn's,  comparing  it  to  the  Grecian 
Court  of  the  Amphictyons.^  Others  took  up  this  idea 
from  time  to  time,^  many  reasons  being  given  as  to  the 
necessity  for  such  a  union,  but  none  with  the  idea  of 
independence  or  of  any  lessening  of  the  royal  control. 
Under  the  authority  of  the  crown  a  number  of  meetings 
were  held  in  the  meantime,  generally  with  the  purpose  of 
arranging  for  the  common  defense  or  to  make  treaties 
with  the  Indians. 

Though  there  was  unquestioned  loyalty  to  the  crown, 
the  principle  of  local  self-government  was,  nevertheless, 
strongly  implanted  in  the  colonists ;  in  fact,  the  induce- 
ment was  put  forth  in  the  newspaper  advertisements  and 

*  Rise  of  the  Republic,  98. 

^  Ibid,  112. 

^  The  plan  proposed  by  William  Penn,  in  1697,  for  an  annual  con- 
gress had  left  in  the  minds  of  the  colonists  a  deep  impression.  The 
result  was  that,  when  Franklin  revived  the  idea,  the  people  them- 
selves rose  to  welcome  it;  and  as  he  descended  the  Hudson  he  was 
greeted  by  cheering  throngs  as  soon  as  he  entered  the  City  of  New 
York.  The  boy  who  had  first  entered  New  York  City  as  a  run- 
away apprentice  was  revered  as  the  mover  of  American  Union. 

In  the  same  year,  1754,  that  Franklin  was  proposing  his  Union 
of  American  Colonies,  David  Hume,  who  had  felt  the  hollowness 
of  the  political  philosophy  that  then  dominated  Europe,  turned  to 
America  and,  expressing  a  belief  that  must  have  been  in  the  minds 
of  other  men,  said,  "  The  seeds  of  many  a  noble  state  have  been 
sown  in  climates  kept  desolate  by  the  wild  manners  of  the  ancient 
inhabitants,  and  an  asylum  is  secure  in  that  solitary  world  for 
liberty  and  science." 

Bancroft's  History  of  the  United  States  of  America,  iii,  81-83. 


RISE  OF  THE  FOURTH  ESTATE  63 

tracts  that  Europeans  who  settled  in  America  would  have 
a  share  in  the  making  of  the  laws  under  which  they  lived. 
The  ''  moral  discoveries,"  as  they  were  called  later,  of 
Habeas  Corpus  and  trial  by  jury,  of  popular  representa- 
tion and  a  free  press,  were  their  inherent  rights,  though 
the  last  named  was  but  now  to  come  into  their  light. 
Against  these  ideas  and  this  spirit  the  various  governors, 
constituting  themselves  defenders  of  the  royal  preroga- 
tive, were  almost  continuously  in  clash.  The  reports 
sent  by  these  governors  tended  to  irritate  the  British  min- 
istry, resulting  in  instructions  which  further  stiffened  the 
resistance  of  the  colonists.'^ 

It  is  well  to  remember  that,  despite  all  the  love  for  the 
mother  country,  from  the  passage  of  the  Navigation  Act 
up  to  the  final  break  there  was  never  a  time  when  there 
was  not  in  every  colony  more  or  less  feeling  on  the  part 
of  the  colonists  against  some  act  of  the  royal  government, 
feeling  that  led  to  developing  the  controversy  between  the 
colonists  and  the  crown  —  "  the  natural  rights  of  man  on 
the  one  hand  and  the  authority  of  artificial  institutions 
on  the  other;" — and  it  was  this  exercise  of  absolute 
power  on  the  part  of  the  once  beloved  mother  country  that 
eventually  brought  the  colonies  together  in  a  spirit  of 
opposition. 

/^his  in  very  brief  was  the  political  condition  in  the 
colonies  when  the  press  of  North  America  —  six  papers 
—  began  to  play  a  part  in  the  politics  and  development  of 
the  nation  that  was  to  be.  To  these  six  —  the  Boston 
News-Letter,  the  Boston  Gazette,  the  American  Weekly 
Mercury  of  Philadelphia,  the  Pennsylvania  Gazette  of 
Philadelphia,  the  New  York  Gazette,  and  the  Maryland 
Gazette  of  Annapolis  —  were  added  the  following  :     ^ 

South  Carolina  Gazette,  Charleston,  Jan.  8,  1732; 

7  Chalmers,  Revolt  of  the  Colonies,  \,  307. 


64  HISTORY  OF  JOURNALISM 

New  York  Weekly  Journal,  New  York,  November  5, 

1733; 

Boston  Evening  Post,  Boston,  August  11,  1735; 

Virginia  Gazette,  Williamsburg,  1736. 

As  the  historian  Rhodes  said  later  of  Horace  Greeley, 
no  single  man  in  his  time  influenced  so  many  people  as  did 
Benjamin  Franklin,  the  editor  and  publisher  of  the  Penn- 
sylvania Gazette.  Franklin  started  off  briskly  to  make  his 
paper  a  notable  one,  announcing  that  the  paper  would  be 
issued  twice  a  week,  a  practice  he  shortly  afterward  dis- 
continued as  not  entirely  profitable.  To  increase  his  cir- 
culation he  originated  the  practice,  still  popular  to-day,  of 
writing  letters  to  the  editor,  creating  a  number  of  imag- 
inary characters  and  engaging  in  disputes  with  himself  in 
order  to  draw  the  public  into  the  editorial  circulation- 
building  net,  wherein  they  write  letters  and  buy  many 
copies  of  the  paper  in  which  their  names  are  printed. 

To  all  this  was  added  the  humor  that  he  had  tried  in 
Boston;  and  he  originated  the  editorial  paragraph.  In 
commenting  on  the  rumor  that  a  flash  of  lightning  had 
melted  the  pewter  buttons  off  the  waistband  of  a  farmer's 
breeches,  he  observed,  "  'Tis  well  nothing  else  there- 
abouts was  made  of  pewter."  ^ 

His  progress  from  that  time  on  was  rapid.  The  list 
of  achievements  which  added  to  his  fame  and  fortune 
included  the  writing  and  pubhcation  of  ''  Poor  Richard's 
Almanac,"  which  he  began  in  October,  1732.  Refraining 
from  no  step  that  would  lead  to  his  success,  we  find  him 
in  1736  elected  Clerk  of  the  Assembly  and  afterwards  be- 
coming a  Member  of  it,  combining  thereby  his  journalistic 
strength  with  a  political  position,  a  combination  that  jour- 
nalists of  America  were  thereafter  to  emulate  in  great 
numbers. 

8  McMaster,  Benjamin  Franklin  as  a  Man  of  Letters,  68. 


RISE  OF  THE  FOURTH  ESTATE  65 

Such  was  the  early  development  of  the  great  Benjamin 
Franklin,  and  such  the  beginning  of  his  great  influence. 

But  it  was  not  only  by  his  example  —  the  towering  ex- 
ample of  success  —  and  by  his  influence  that  Franklin 
aided  the  beginning  of  journalism  in  America.  He  was 
the  thrifty  financial  partner  and  abettor  of  other  pio- 
neers. The  importance  of  this  aid  can  hardly  be  esti- 
mated, for  at  a  time  when  the  new  profession  —  though 
it  was  a  "  trade,"  the  trade  of  printing  that  editing  still 
came  under  —  needed  friends,  it  meant  more  than  one 
can  realize  now  to  have  a  man  of  Franklin's  ability,  emi- 
nence and  success  express  his  belief  in  the  material  pos- 
sibilities of  his  vocation  in  so  unanswerable  a  fashion  as 
by  the  risking  of  his  own  money.  There  is  no  doubt  that 
he,  being  the  very  living  example  of  the  ''  poor  boy  " 
legend,  has  been  the  inspiration  of  the  venturesome  spirit 
of  Typothetse,  not  only  in  this  country  but  the  world 
over;  with  the  result  of  many  Horace  Greeleys,  it  is 
true,  but  also  with  many  disappointments  and  failures  in 
the  unwritten  records  of  journeymen  printers  who  wan- 
dered beyond  the  appointed  time,  until  wandering  became 
a  habit. 

In  modern  terms,  he,  more  than  any  one  else,  put 
printing  and  journalism  on  a  business  basis.  He  was  not 
content  with  the  success  that  he  was  achieving  in  his  own 
city,  but  he  penetrated  into  other  colonies.  He  set  up 
Lewis  Timothy,  the  publisher  of  the  South  Carolina  Ga- 
zette, at  Charleston  in  1733,  on  a  basis  of  partnership.^ 
Timothy  was  one  of  three  printers  who  wtnt  to  Charles- 
ton as  a  result  of  the  offer,  on  the  part  of  the  Colonial 
Government,  of  a  £1000  premium  to  encourage  a  printer 
to  settle  there. ^^     Franklin  tells  us  that  he  visited  New- 

^  Franklin's  Works,  i,  195.     (Bigelow  Edition.) 
10  Thomas,  ii,  153. 


66  HISTORY  OF  JOURNALISM 

port  and,  when  his  brother  James  died,  Benjamin,  to  make 
amends  to  him  for  having  run  away  from  Boston,  set  up 
his  son  in  the  printing  business,  the  son  being  the  James 
Frankhn,  Jr.,  who  afterward  became  the  editor  of  the 
Newport  Mercury}^  He  was  also  the  partner  of  James 
Parker,  the  pubhsher  of  the  Gazette  in  New  York  City. 

Meanwhile,  the  demand  for  the  printing  press  and  for 
news  journals  spread  throughout  the  colonies.  Journal- 
ism developed  in  the  South  more  slowly  than  in  the  North, 
a  larger  proportion  of  the  Southerners  living  on  their 
own  land,  especially  in  Maryland  and  Virginia;  as  a  re- 
sult, there  was  a  sense  of  individual  freedom  which  did 
not  produce  that  political  spirit  that  knits  men  together 
for  a  common  purpose. ^^ 

Politics  develops  with  the  town,  but  on  the  other  hand 
the  landed  proprietor  developed  a  sociability  and  hospi- 
tality not  found  in  the  towns  —  a  sociability  and  hospi- 
tality, however,  that  went  to  make  a  ruling  class  and  not 
to  make  a  democracy  or  to  encourage  democratic  institu- 
tions. Virginia  particularly  lagged  behind  the  other  col- 
onies in  this  regard.  In  the  early  days  of  the  printing 
press  the  one  attempt  in  Virginia  to  keep  abreast  of  the 
new  movement  had  been  promptly  quashed.  In  1682 
John  Buckner  published  the  Virginia  laws  of  1680;  he 
was  immediately  summoned  before  the  council  and  for- 
bidden to  do  any  more  printing  until  the  consent  of  the 
king  had  been  given  him,  with  the  result  that  "  for  forty- 
seven  years  not  another  type  was  set  in  the  Old  Do- 
minion." ^^ 

The  backwardness  of  Virginia  in  this  respect  was 
partly  due  to  the  attitude  that  is  shown  in  the  statement  of 

^'^  Franklin's  Works,  i,  199.     (Bigelow  Edition.) 

12  W.  H.  Browne,  Maryland,  16. 

13  McMaster,  Franklin,  Z7- 


RISE  OF  THE  FOURTH  ESTATE  67 

Governor  Berkeley,  when  reporting  in  1671  on  the  con- 
dition of  the  colony :  "  Thank  God,  we  have  no  free 
schools  nor  printing;  God  keep  us  from  both."  ^"^ 

Express  orders  were  given  to  Lord  Effingham,  on  his 
appointment  as  Governor  in  1683,  not  to  allow  the  use  of 
a  printing  press  in  the  colony.  It  was  not  until  1766 
that  the  colony  had  more  than  one  printing  press.  This 
belonged  to  William  Parks,  who  had  established  a  paper 
in  Maryland,  but  finding  Virginia  a  more  profitable  field, 
had  left  Annapolis  and  moved  to  Williamsburg,  where 
he  established  in  1736,  under  the  patronage  of  the  Gov- 
ernor, the  colony's  first  new^spaper,  the  Virginia  Gazette. 

If  the  South  lagged  behind,  Pennsylvania  forged 
ahead.  In  1742  William  Bradford,  grandson  of  the 
publisher  of  the  Nezv  York  Gazette,  brought  out  the  Penn- 
sylvania Journal  and  Weekly  Advertiser.  The  publica- 
tion came  out  as  a  strong  Whig  paper,  devoted  to  the  in- 
terests of  the  colonists.  On  the  31st  of  October,  the  day 
before  the  Stamp  Act  was  to  go  into  effect,  it  appeared  in  j 
mourning,  with  a  skull  and  cross-bones  over  the  title.  ■ 
On  the  border  of  the  first  page  was  an  engraving  of  a  cof- 
fin, under  which  was  this  epitaph  :  , 

The  last  Remains  of 

THE  PENNSYLVANIA  JOURNAL 

Which  departed  this  life,  the  31st  of  October,   1765, 

of  a  stamp  in  her  Vitals 

Age  23  years.  i 

Thomas  Bradford,  son  of  the  publisher,  was  taken  into 
partnership  in  1766.  The  Bradford  family  distinguished 
themselves  not  only  in  printing  and  in  journalism,  but 
on  the  field  as  w^ll.  Bradford  was  a  major  of  Militia  at 
Trenton,  w^as  at  Fort  Mifflin,  and  came  out  of  the  Prince- 
ton fight  a  Colonel. 

1*  Gordon,  History,  i,  53. 


68  HISTORY  OF  JOURNALISM 

In  Maryland,  the  Gazette,  which  had  died  under  Parks 
in  1736,  was  revived  in  1745  under  the  direction  of  Jonas 
Green,  and  this  paper  in  1765  announced  its  suspension 
because  of  the  Stamp  Act,  but  the  suspension  was  brief. 
It  was  soon  re-continued  and  was  pubHshed  weekly  l>y 
Green  and  his  descendants  until  1839,  when  another 
Jonas  Green,  great-grandson  of  the  original  proprietor, 
discontinued  it  and  a  paper  called  the  St.  Mary's  Gazette 
took  its  place. 

In  New  York  the  New  York  Evening  Post  was  issued 
for  about  a  year  by  Henry  De  Forrest,  appearing  first  in 
1746.  The  spread  of  the  journalistic  spirit  was  shown 
by  the  fact  that  two  attempts  were  made  about  this  time 
to  print  papers  in  German,  one  being  published  by  Sower 
in  Germantown,  in  1739,  ^^^  the  other  by  Armbruster  in 
Philadelphia  in  1743. 

About  this  time  Boston,  too,  added  to  Its  list  of  news- 
papers. Ellis  Huske,  whose  son  is  supposed  to  have  rec- 
ommended the  obnoxious  Stamp  Act  to  the  government  in 
1765,  was  made  postmaster  in  1734.  Following  the  ex- 
ample of  Campbell  and  the  others,  he  got  out  a  paper 
called  the  Boston  Weekly  Post  Boy,  This  paper  lived 
for  nearly  a  quarter  of  a  century  without  any  particular 
distinction. 

The  New  England  Courant  case,  in  which  James 
Franklin  was  involved,  was  the  last  instance  of  an  at- 
tempt to  revive  and  enforce  censorship  in  Massachusetts. 
The  failure  of  the  General  Court  to  restrict  the  freedom 
of  the  press  by  insisting  that  a  license  be  granted  by  the 
Secretary  of  the  Province,  marked  the  end  of  the  old 
order  of  things;  from  that  time  on  there  was  at  least  a 
partial  freedom  for  the  press. ^^ 

That  the  government  itself  recognized  this  condition  is 
15  Duniway,  Freedom  of  the  Press  in  Massachusetts,  102. 


RISE  OF  THE  FOURTH  ESTATE  69 

shown  in  two  indirect  ways.  On  May  13,  1725,  the 
Council  had  ordered  that  the  newspapers  must  not  print 
"  anything  of  the  PubHck  Affairs  of  this  Province  relat- 
ing to  the  war  without  the  order  of  the  government," 
which  order  by  implication  meant  that  the  printers  might 
print  anything  else  that  they  chose.  ^^ 

On  September  2nd  of  the  same  year  the  council,  on 
the  complaint  of  a  minister  who  declared  that  he  had  been 
wTongfully  treated  in  the  Boston  News-Letter,  ordered 
that  ''  His  Honor  the  Lieut.  Governour  give  his  orders  to 
the  publishers  of  the  several  newspapers  not  to  insert  in 
their  papers  these  words  —  published  by  authority  —  or 
words  to  the  like  import  for  ye  future."  ^^  This  indi- 
cated that  the  government  did  not  intend  to  assume  the 
responsibility  of  supervision,  nor  did  it  desire  such  con- 
trol ;  but  the  old  habit  of  leaning  on  the  government  was 
still  so  strong  that,  in  December,  1729,  it  was  necessary 
for  the  Council  again  to  order  the  printers  of  the  news- 
papers not  to  state  that  they  were  published  by  author- 
ity. ^^ 

With  the  departure  of  James  Franklin,  there  was  a 
short  period  of  colorless  newspapers,  and  although  there 
were  sharp  political  disputes,  such  as  those  over  the  Gov- 
ernor's salary  and  the  issue  of  Bills  of  Credit,  the  edi- 
tors themselves  took  no  sides,  acting  merely  as  printers 
or  publishers  of  the  papers. 

Not  until  Thomas  Fleet  appeared  as  the  printer  and 
publisher  of  the  Evening  Post  did  the  press  of  Boston 
again  become  interesting.  He  conducted  this  paper  from 
1735  to  1758'  with  sarcasm  and  vivacity  —  so  much  so 
that  he  was  declared  by  the  preachers  to  be  ''  a  dangerous 

I*'  Council  Records,  viii,  198. 

1^  Council  Records,  viii,  272,  273. 

18  Council  Records,  ix,  189,  190. 


70  HISTORY  OF  JOURNALISM 

engine,  a  sink  of  sedition,  error  and  heresy."  That  he 
understood  the  value  —  and  the  dangers  —  of  the  fight 
in  which  he  was  engaged  is  shown,  however,  by  his  re- 
printing an  account  of  the  Zenger  trial  in  the  Evening 
Post  of  May  29,  1738,  under  the  head  of  ''  The  Liberty 
of  the  Press." 

Although  there  was  a  great  deal  of  liberty  as  com- 
pared w^ith  the  previous  century,  political  items  might 
still  render  the  publisher  liable  to  prosecution.  In  March, 
1742,  Fleet,  having  picked  up,  in  conversation  with  a 
naval  officer,  an  item  to  the  effect  that  Sir  Robert  Wal- 
pole  was  to  be  taken  in  custody,  was  haled  before  the 
Council,  and  the  attorney  general  was  ordered  to  prose- 
cute him.     The  prosecution,  however,  was  never  pushed. 

It  was  at  the  suggestion  of  the  Lords  of  Trade,  sent 
to  several  of  the  governors  in  a  letter  dated  September  18, 
1753,  that  an  American  Congress,  based  on  the  principle 
of  representation,  was  convened  for  the  purpose  of  mak- 
ing a  treaty  with  the  Six  Nations,  to  prevent  them  from 
aiding  the  French  or  uniting  with  the  Indians  under 
French  influence.  The  suggestion,  which  was  to  mean 
so  much  to  the  colonists,  awoke  enthusiasm  only  among 
the  royal  governors,  the  newspapers  as  a  rule  making  no 
reference  to  it.  This  Congress  was  called  to  meet  at 
Albany  June  14,  1754,  and  Benjamin  Franklin  urged  it 
in  the  Philadelphia  Gazette,  using  the  device,  *'  Join  or 
Die."  19 

On  June  19,  1754,  the  Congress  met  at  Albany,  then 
a  compact  Dutch  city  of  three  hundred  houses  and  2600 
inhabitants.  The  men  present  from  the  various  colonies, 
while  mainly  champions  of  the  royal  prerogative,  were 
also,  in  some  instances,  distinguished  upholders  of  the 

^^Pennsylvania    Gazette,   May   9,    1754 — Copied   by   the   Boston 
Gazette,  May  21,  1754, 


RISE  OF  THE  FOURTH  ESTATE  71 

people's  rights ;  among  them  were  Benjamin  Frankhn  of 
Pennsylvania  and  William  Smith,  who  had  been  one  of 
the  counsel  for  Zenger  in  hi^  great  fight  for  the  Liberty 
of  the  Press. 

It  was  here  that  Franklin  put  forth  his  plan  for  unit- 
ing the  colonies,  which,  it  was  finally  voted,  the  commis- 
sioners should  lay  before  their  constituents  for  consider- 
ation. But  the  people  were  not  yet  ready  for  such  an 
advance.  The  Boston  Gazette,  July  2t^,  1754,  simply 
noted  that  ''  the  Commissioners  from  the  several  govern- 
ments were  unanimously  of  the  opinion  that  such  a  union 
of  the  colonies  was  absolutely  necessary." 

Here  and  there  the  idea  of  uniting  gained  converts. 
Later,  a  fervid  writer  in  the  same  paper  wrote :  ''  I  hope 
and  pray  the  Almighty,  that  the  British  colonies  on  this 
continent  may  cease  impolitically  and  ungenerously  to 
consider  themselves  as  distinct  states,  with  narrow,  sep- 
arate and  independent  views ;  .  .  .  and  thereby  secure  to 
themselves  and  their  posterity  to  the  end  of  time  the  in- 
estimable blessings  of  civil  and  religious  liberty,  and  the 
uninterrupted  possession  and  settlement  of  a  great  coun- 
try, rich  in  all  the  fountains  of  human  felicity.  To  ob- 
tain this  happy  establishment,  w^ithout  which,  I  fear,  it 
will  never  be  obtained,  may  the  God  of  heaven  grant  suc- 
cess to  the  plan  for  a  union  of  the  British  colonies  on 
the  continent  of  America."  ^^ 

The  colonists  needed  more  than  perfunctory  urging, 
and  the  plan  was  denounced  in  public  meeting,  from  the 
fear  that  it  would  tend  to  increase  the  power  of  the  crown 
rather  than  to  strengthen  the  people.  The  Commission- 
ers themselves  were  not  enthusiastic.  The  real  reason 
for  the  rejection  of  the  plan  of  union  was  the  attitude  of 
the  ministry  of  George  III  toward  the  colonists. 
^^  Boston  Gazette,  October  i,  1754. 


72.  HISTORY  OF  JOURNALISM 

The  new  king  believed  that  America  was  growing 
wild,  and  that  the  institutions  with  which  America  was 
identifying  itself  were  opposed  to  the  British  Government. 
Immediately  after  the  peace  of  Paris,  orders  were  issued 
directing  the  execution  of  the  Sugar  Act,  the  Navigation 
Act,  and  those  arbitrary  laws  which  had  long  been  urged 
by  the  Lords  of  Trade,  laws  which  contemplated  bring- 
ing the  colonists  under  the  absolute  control  of  the  mother 
country.  "  The  Sugar  Act,"  said  the  Boston  Evening 
Post,  ''has  from  its  first  publication  (1733)  been  ad- 
judged so  unnatural,  that  hardly  any  attempts  have  been 
made  to  carry  it  into  execution." 

A  general  meeting  was  urged  and  it  was  suggested  that 
a  committee  write  to  every  maritime  town  in  the  prov- 
ince. The  Boston  Gazette  of  January  16,  1764,  says  that 
the  merchants  were  communicating  their  actions  to  every 
town.  The  Boston  Evening  Post,  for  February  13,  1764, 
has  an  account  of  the  meeting  of  the  merchants  of  New 
York,  held  at  Mr.  Burn's  Long  Room. 

The  acts  of  the  Lords  of  Trade  were  oppressive  to  the 
point  of  arousing  those  who  were  at  heart  neither  Tory 
nor  Whig,  and  thereby  strengthened  the  Whig  party  in 
America,  a  party  believing  in  the  principles  of,  and  claim- 
ing an  ancestry  in,  Buchanan  and  Languet,  Milton, 
Locke  and  Sidney  .  .  .  '*  of  the  political  school  whose 
utterances  are  inspired  and  imbued  with  the  Christian 
idea  of  man."  ^^  We  shall  see  how  the  seed  of  democ- 
racy, warmed  by  the  battle  for  a  free  press  and  greater 
personal  freedom,  grew  overnight  into  a  sturdy  plant, 
under  the  influence  of  hot  resentment  against  these  moral 
wrongs. 

The  first  organized  action  took  place  in  Boston  on  the 
motion  of  Samuel  Adams,  on  the  24th  of  May,  1764. 
21  Rise  of  the  Republic,  165. 


RISE  OF  THE  FOURTH  ESTATE  73 

This  was  the  caucus  which  was  to  play  such  an  important 
part  in  history,  and  which  advertised  in  the  Boston  Eve- 
ning Post  of  May  14,  1764,  requesting,  of  the  freehold- 
ers, power  to  act  against  the  obnoxious  trade  regulations, 
ven  to  this  time,  there  was  no  hostility  to  the  monar- 
chical principle,  nor  any  desire  to  set  up  an  independent 
nation ;  ^^  still,  while  the  newspapers  that  were  being 
printed  did  not  directly  encourage  anti-monarchical  feel- 
ing, the  mere  fact  of  their  being  printed  more  or  less 
against  the  wishes  of  the  Governor  encouraged  the  idea 
of  a  nation,  which  was  slowly  germinating. 

The  national  feeling  received  encouragement  —  not 
from  colonists  alone,  who  were  in  frequent  clashes  with 
their  governors,  or  from  the  journalists  who  were  obliged 
to  suffer  from  the  oppression  and  narrowness  of  the  latter 
—  but  from  outside  sources. 

Daniel  Coxe  had  proposed,  in  1722,  that  there  should 
be  a  "  legal,  regular  and  firm  establishment,"  uniting  all 
the  colonies,  but  still  loyal  to  Great  Britain,  for  even  up 
to  1749  the  belief  of  the  majority  of  the  colonists  was 
that  "  our  constitution  is  English,  which  is  another  name 
for  free  and  happy,  and  is  without  doubt  the  perfectest 
model  of  civil  government  that  has  ever  been  in  the  whole 
world."  23 

Journalism  began  to  give  the  colonists  a  sense  of  their 
own  individuality,  ''  not  merely  by  passionate  appeals,  but 
by  virtue  of  its  prime  office  of  collection  and  circulating 
intelligence  by  disseminating  the  facts  that  enabled  the 
public  opinion  of  one  community  or  political  center  to  act 
on  other  communities."  ^^  To  a  great  extent,  the  im- 
portance of  this  new  agency  in  giving  strength  and  force 

22  Rise  of  the  Republic,  98. 

23  Boston  Independent  Advertiser,  May  29,  1749. 
2*  Rise  of  the  Republic,  130. 


74  HISTORY  OF  JOURNALISM 

to  the  elements  of  progress  in  the  colonies  has  been  over- 
looked. That  these  efforts  were  increasing  the  demo- 
cratic tendency  and  awakening  the  communities  to  self- 
consciousness,  may  be  seen  by  the  rejection  of  the  Albany 
plan  of  confederation  on  the  ground  that  it  was  not 
"  democratic  "  enough, — to  use  the  words  of  Franklin, 
who  was  one  of  the  commoners  for  Pennsylvania.  He 
tells  us  in  his  autobiography  that  it  was  on  his  way  to 
the  conference  that  he  drew  up  his  plan  ^^  which  after 
debate  was  unanimously  adopted.  ''  Its  fate  was  sin- 
gular," writes  Franklin,  "  the  assemblies  (of  the  colonies) 
did  not  adopt  it,  as  they  all  thought  there  was  too  much 
prerogative  in  it,  and  in  England  it  was  judged  to  have 
too  much  of  the  democratic."  But  at  least  the  concrete 
idea  of  a  Union  was  before  the  people. 

The  difficulties  with  the  colonial  government,  oppres- 
sive as  they  were,  were  not  as  important  as  the  difficulties 
attendant  on  the  finding  of  adequate  protection  against 
the  French  and  the  Indians,  and  the  idea  of  a  nation  was 
to  come  originally  out  of  the  latter  condition  rather  than 
the  former.  In  the  Albany  conference,  Franklin,  the 
printer  and  editor,  was  the  one  man  of  vision;  he,  a 
man  of  the  people,  was  the  leader;  he  who  had  come 
up  from  nothing,  the  prototype  of  the  Greeley  journalist- 
statesman,  was  the  one  man  that  made  the  conference  a 
memorable  gathering.  Men  who  had  hitherto  looked 
down  upon  the  press,  who  had  regarded  papers  as  "  miser- 
able sheets,"  began  to  see  their  usefulness.  In  the  next 
chapter  we  see  that  these  men  did  not  disdain  to  use  these 
sheets  for  the  cause  that  they  held  sacred,  leading  the 
way  for  their  later  use  by  even  the  scholarly  Jefferson 
and  Hamilton. 

25  Franklin's  Autobiography,  i,  243. 


RISE  OF  THE  FOURTH  ESTATE  75 

-^The  journalistic  efforts  of  this  time  may  not  seem  in- 
spiring but  the  spirit  of  James  Frankhn  in  Boston,  of 
Zenger  in  New  York,  and  of  the  Bradfords  in  Philadel- 
phia, was  spreading  throughout  the  colonies  even  though 
the  tendencies  w€re  not  observed  by  the  colonists  them- 
selves. These  were  preliminary  battles,  the  results  of 
which  were  to  be  seen  in  the  fight  against  British  au- 
tocracy. 


CHAPTER  VII 

THE  ASSUMPTION  OF  POLITICAL  POWER 

Boldness  of  the  press  —  Boston  the  "  Hub  "  of  the  fight  —  Sam- 
uel Adams  —  Daniel  Fowle  —  The  Boston  Chronicle  — 
Thomas  and  the  Spy  —  Tribute  to  democracy  and  journal- 
ism—  The  Whig  Club  —  Alexander  McDougall  —  "45"  — 
Hugh  Gaine  and  John  Holt  —  Holt's  activities  for  the  patriots' 
cause  —  William  Goddard  —  Washington's  letter  to  Goddard 
—  The  Green  family  —  Press  in  other  colonies. 

At  practically  the  same  time  that  there  began  to  spread 
throughout  the  colonies  the  idea  of  a  nation  —  before 
there  was  yet  a  well  developed  idea  of  independence  — 
the  Fourth  Estate  began  to  show  conscious  power.  The 
new  institution  was  no  longer  a  thing  of  threads  and 
patches.  Although  there  were  at  the  date  of  the  Albany 
conference  hardly  more  than  a  dozen  journals  in  the 
colonies,  and  none  at  all  in  at  least  six  of  them,  the  liberty 
of  the  press  was  already  one  of  the  most  firmly  rooted 
ideas  in  the  colonies.  The  boldness  of  the  men  who,  but 
a  few  decades  before  had  been  almost  outlaws,  established 
for  themselves  and  their  calling  a  respect  and  a  follow- 
ing that  made  them  a  primary  factor  in  the  struggle  into 
which  the  colonies  were  about  to  enter.  The  new  in- 
stitution took  its  place  among  the  active  factors  in  the 
organization  of  human  society,  adapting  itself  progres- 
sively to  the  **  wants  which  it  itself  created  and  fos- 
tered." The  tasks  to  which  this  institution  —  scarcely 
out  of  infancy  —  addressed  itself  were  no  less  tasks  than 
the  freeing  of  a  people  and  the  foundation  of  a  nation. 

The  people  were  beginning  to  be  sovereign.     The  press, 

76 


THE  ASSUMPTION  OF  POLITICAL  POWER      jy 

as  the  leaders  in  the  revolutionary  movement  said  over 
and  over  again,  was  the  expression  of  that  sovereignty. 
It  v^as  also  the  instrument  by  which  the  people  were 
aroused  to  oppose  oppression.  Having  taken  unto  them- 
selves the  right  to  question  authority,  they  could  not  even 
understand  the  attitude  of  those  who  still  looked  to  the 
king  as  the  sole  source  of  authority.  It  was  not  con- 
ceivable to  them  that  only  a  few  years  before  Louis 
XIV,  entering  the  French  Parliament  in  his  hunting-dress 
and  great  boots,  with  whip  in  hand,  had  been  in  a  posi- 
tion to  declare :  *'  The  mischievous  consequences  of  your 
assemblies  are  well  known.  I  therefore  order  this, 
which  is  met  to  discuss  my  edict,  to  be  at  an  end,"  ^  or 
that  their  own  king,  Henry  VII,  when  Parliament  refused 
to  pass  his  appropriation  bill,  had  sent  for  the  members 
and,  glowering  at  them,  declared  that  if  the  bill  failed  to 
pass  he  would  chop  off  their  heads. 

There  were  many,  not  only  in  England  but  in  the 
colonies  who  still  believed  that  the  king  represented  this 
same  kind  of  power  and  authority;  but  the  men  who 
were  leading  public  opinion,  who  were  insistent  on  the 
rights  of  the  people,  were  men  who  had  developed  a  point 
of  view  that  could  little  comprehend  such  authority. 

The  Provinces  in  this  short  pre-Revolutionary  period 
presented  a  spectacle  unusual  in  political  history,  and 
particularly  unheard-of  at  that  time.  The  law-mak-« 
ing  body  in  England  did  not  have  the  right  of  publicity. 
Public  meetings  and  the  press  were  still  controlled.  In 
France,  the  people  were  a  negligible  element,  and  in  Ger- 
many there  was  little  free  discussion  of  political  affairs. 
This  revolution  by  public  opinion  was  therefore,  to  those 
who  were  out  of  sympathy  with  it,  like  some  strange 
apparition. 
1  Voltaire,  Age  of  Louis  XIV,  i\,  2. 


78  HISTORY  OF  JOURNALISM 

The  idea  of  a  nation  was  slowly  passing  into  the 
minds  of  the  people,  but  many  still  believed  that  a 
recognition  of  the  rights  of  the  colonies  coirld  be  achieved 
without  a  severance  of  political  relations  with  the  mother 
country.  The  great  idea  of  a  free  and  independent 
nation,  as  it  rose  in  the  minds  of  the  people,  left  its  traces 
in  the  journals  of  the  day,  and  it  was  to  those  journals 
that  the  idea  owed  much. 

Even  before  the  independence  of  the  country  was 
thought  of,  prophecies  as  to  the  future  greatness  of 
America  were  being  made  in  Europe,  and  these  were 
bound,  in  time,  to  have  their  effect  on  the  colonists.  The 
spectacle  of  a  nation  in  the  process  of  formation  was  an 
attraction  to  the  clear-visioned  philosophers,  such  as 
Berkley  in  England  and  Turgot  in  France.  A  few  far- 
seeing  patriots  dreamed  of  a  nation;  Franklin,  with  con- 
tinued vision,  prophesied  that  the  Mississippi  Valley  would 
become,  in  a  comparatively  few  years,  a  populous  and 
powerful  country.  ^  Internal  conditions,  too,  were  add- 
ing to  the  leaven.  About  the  middle  of  the  eighteenth 
century  a  wave  of  democracy  sv/ept  over  the  province 
of  New  York  and  spread  to  other  provinces,  in  conse- 
quence of  which  suffrage  was  considerably  extended.  ^ 

Ignorant  of  occurrences  on  this  side  of  the  water,  and 
unable  to  understand  the  temper  and  the  new  beliefs  of 
the  people  who  had  once  been  loyal  and  unquestioning 
subjects,  the  British  Government,  by  a  series  of  acts 
calculated  to  check  their  democratic  tendencies,  irritated 
the  colonists  and  finally  roused  them  to  the  point  of  revo- 
lution. To  awaken  in  the  Americans  a  sense  of  indigna- 
tion over  their  wrongs ;  to  keep  alive  their  resentment  that 
they  might,  by  cohesive  action,  break  down  the  defense 

2  Sparks,  Works  of  Franklin,  iii,  70. 

3  Edwards,  New  York  as  an  Eighteenth  Century  Municipality,  243. 


THE  ASSUMPTION  OF  POLITICAL  POWER       79 

and  repel  the  attack  of  the  Tories  when  they  finally  saw 
the  necessity  for  attack  and  defense  —  this  was  the  work 
of  a  comparatively  few  men,  who,  when  they  were  not 
journalists  themselves,  either  became  journalists,  or  else, 
like  Thomas  Jefferson  in  Virginia,  induced  others  to  take 
up  thecause  through  the  press. 

/-Papers  were  now  being  published  regularly  in  Boston, 
Newport,  New  York,  Philadelphia,  Annapolis,  Williams- 
burg (Virginia,)  and  Charleston.  But  it  w^as  in  Boston 
that  this  fight  took  place  —  Boston,  the  cradle  of  Ameri- 
can liberty  and  the  birthplace  of  American  journalism. 
It  was  from  Boston  that  the  campaign  of  publicity  and 
propaganda  was  directed,  for  it  was  vitally  necessary  that 
Boston  should  arouse  the  other  colonies,  in  order  that 
she  might  not  find  herself  single-handed  in  the  very  un- 
equal struggle  in  which  she  had  engaged. 

There  was  in  Boston  one  man  who  recognized  the 
power  of  journalism,  the  first  man  in  America  to  use 
it  for  political  purposes  —  Samuel  Adams.  It  was  to 
Adams  and  a  group  of  his  young  friends  that  the  first 
political  newspaper  in  the  colonies  owed  its  existence. 
On  January  4,  1748,  the  Independent  Advertiser  was  is- 
sued in  Boston  by  Gamaliel  Rogers  and  John  Fowle,  the 
leading  printers  of  the  colony,  who  had  already  published 
th^  American  Magazine,  from  1743  to  1746.  They  were 
the  first  in  America  to  successfully  manufacture  ink, 
and  the  first  American  impression  of  the  New  Testament 
in  English  had  been  printed  by  them. 

The  Advertiser  w^as  started  as  the  result  of  the  ac- 
tivity of  a  political  club,  formed  by  the  man  who  was 
to  be  the  "  Father  of  the  Revolution."  The  paper,  it  is 
said,  was  begun  on  the  strength  of  the  communications 
promised  by  the  members.  ^  That  the  group  of  young 
*  Wells,  Life  of  Samuel  Adams,  i,  15. 


8o  HISTORY  OF  JOURNx\LISM 

men  associated  with  Adams  took  themselves  and  their 
task  with  becoming  seriousness,  is  evidenced  by  the  per- 
tinent and  well-written  address  with  which  the  opening 
number  saluted  the  public,  stating  their  purpose  to  be, 
inasmuch  "  As  our  present  political  state  affords  matter 
for  a  variety  of  thoughts,"  to  insert  whatever  of  general 
interest  might  appear  proper  to  publish.  They  declared 
that  they  were  of  no  party,  nor  would  they  promote  any 
narrow  private  designs.  "  We  are  ourselves  free,  and 
our  paper  shall  be  free  —  free  as  the  Constitution  we  en- 
joy —  free  to  Truth,  Good  Manners  and  good  Sense,  and 
at  the  same  time  free  from  all  licentious  Reflections,  In- 
solence and  Abuse."  ^ 

The  Independent  Advertiser  reflected  the  sentiments  of 
most  of  the  colonists  at  that  time,  their  point  of  view 
being  friendly  and  even  affectionate  toward  the  mother- 
country.  "  Our  Constitution  is  English,  which  is  an- 
other name  for  free  and  happy,  and  is  without  doubt  the 
perfectest  model  civil  government  that  has  ever  been 
in  the  world." 

A  free  press,  the  right  of  habeas  corpus,  trial  by  jury 
and  popular  representation  were  all  regarded  as  English 
institutions  —  the  gift  of  the  mother-land.  Even  Wash- 
ington himself,  in  1756,  spoke  of  showing  his  obedience 
to  "  the  best  of  Kings."  « 

In  April,  1750,  Rogers  and  Fowle  dissolved  partner- 
ship and  the  paper  was  discontinued,  but  the  work  of 
Samuel  Adams  went  on.  The  part  played  by  the  great 
patriot  and  the  Boston  Gazette,  with  which  his  name  is 
so  closely  associated,  is  so  important  a  part  of  the  his- 
tory of  journalism  that  it  has  been  reserved  for  another 
chapter.     A  paper  of  the  same  name  had  been  published 

^Independent  Advertiser,  January  4,  1748. 
^Pennsylvania  Gazette,  September  16,  1756. 


THE  ASSUMPTION  OF  POLITICAL  POWER      8 1 

from  1753  to  1755,  by  Samuel  Kneeland,  but  the  journal 
of  Edes  and  Gill,  the  journal  which  was  to  make  Ameri- 
can history,  did  not  appear  until  April  7,  1755,  after 
Kneeland's  paper  had  passed  away. 

The  name  of  Daniel  Fowle,  however,  is  entitled  to  fur- 
ther mention,  for  in  a  persistent  fight  with  the  authori- 
ties he  proved  that  the  printer  was  no  longer  a  poor 
fellow  at  whom  any  representative  of  the  government 
might  bark.  In  October,  1754,  he  was  arrested  for  print- 
ing an  anonymous  pamphlet,  supposed  to  be  an  attack 
on  the  House  of  Representatives.  He  was  accused  of 
printing  the  libel  and  was  sent  to  jail,  but  as  the  prose- 
cution failed  to  establish  his  guilt,  the  case  was  dropped. 
The  following  year  he  brought  suit  for  £1000  damages 
for  illegal  imprisonment,  and  finally  in  1766,  after  con- 
tinued litigation,  he  was  awarded  £20  —  establishing,  if 
not  the  right  of  the  printer  to  a  fair  trial,  at  least  a  monu- 
ment to  his  combativeness  and  his  insistency. 

"  Living  in  the  family  of  Daniel  Fowle's  brother,"  says 
Isaiah  Thomas,  himself  a  notable  printer  and  the  first 
historian  of  printing  in  America,  "  I  early  became  inti- 
mately acquainted  with  the  whole  transaction,  and  deep 
impressions  were  then  made  upon  my  mind  in  favor  of 
the  liberty  of  the  press."  ^ 

It  is  easy  to  understand  how  a  long,  bitter  fight  by  an 
apparently  humble  printer  against  the  powerful  govern- 
ment had  its  effect  on  the  imagination  of  other  printers 
and  writers. 

With  so  aggressive  an  adversary  as  Samuel  Adams  in 
the  field,  and  one  proving  himself  to  be  so  capable  a 
journalistic  combatant,  the  defenders  of  the  crown  were 
driven  to  the  use  of  his  own  weapons.  One  of  the  most 
lo}al  of  these  defenders  was  the  old  News-Letter^  which 

"^History  of  Printing  in  America,  i,  337. 


/ 


82  HISTORY  OF  JOURNALISM 

became  for  a  while,  under  new  hands,  a  vigorous  figure 
in  the  arena. 

John  Draper,  an  industrious  and  scruputous  journal- 
ist, had  conducted  the  News-Lettcr  for  thirty  years. 
When  he  died,  in  1762,  it  passed  to  his  son,  Richard 
Draper,  who  earned  the  reputation  of  being  the  best  re- 
porter—  "the  best  compiler  of  news  in  his  day."  ^ 

The  News-Letter,  under  the  Drapers,  had  achieved  a 
certain  distinction  and  much  authority,  although  it  did 
not  have  a  large  circulation.  Richard  Draper  was  a 
strong  supporter  of  the  royal  cause  and,  as  a  sign  of  his 
devotion,  he  added  the  King's  arms  to  the  title  of  his 
paper.  He  died  in  1774,  and  his  widow  attempted  to 
carry  it  on  with  the  assistance  of  a  young  printer  and 
bookseller,  named  Boyle.  Boyle  was  a  patriot,  however, 
and  as  the  paper  was  developing  more  and  more  into  an 
out-and-out  Tory  sheet,  he  retired.  While  the  British 
occupied  Boston  the  paper  flourished,  but  when  they  left 
it  ceased  to  exist.  The  widow  Draper  left  Boston  with 
the  British  troops  and  received  a  life  pension  from  the 
British  Government.  She  has  been  immortalized  in 
Trumbull's  poem,  ''  M'Fingal."  Thus  ended  ingloriously 
the  first  newspaper  printed  in  America,  its  end  as  little 
inspiring  as  was  its  beginning.  It  was  cordially  hated  by 
the  patriots.  It  was  the  only  paper  printed  in  Boston  dur- 
ing the  siege,  and  was  ardent  in  its  defense  of  the  British 
troops  and  their  various  acts.^ 

The  Boston  Chronicle  appeared  on  December  21,  1767, 
to  back  up  the  Tory  cause,  though  at  first  it  seemed  in- 
clined to  be  impartial,  even  going  so  far  as  to  print  the 
celebrated  letters  of  the  Pennsylvania  Farmer,  by  John 
Dickinson.     The  Chronicle  was  one  of  the  first  evidences 

*  Memorial  History  of  Boston,  ii,  392. 
»  Memorial  History  of  Boston,  ii,  392. 


THE  ASSUMPTION  OF  POLITICAL  POWER      83 

that  the  Tory  forces  realized  the  necessity  for  using 
methods  that  they  had  once  despised.  Its  very  pubHca- 
tion  was  a  frank  admission  that  the  first  battle  in  the  great 
fight  for  popular  sovereignty  had  been  won;  it  was  an 
admission  that,  after  all,  public  opinion  had  to  be  con- 
sidered. 

The  men  who  were  entrusted  with  the  undertaking  of 
keeping  the  populace  "  from  being  misinformed  "  were 
John  Mein,  a  bookseller  of  some  literary  ability,  and 
John  Fleming,  a  printer. 

John  Mein  was  the  founder  of  the  circulating  library 
in  Boston.  He  had  come  to  the  colony  from  Scotland 
but  three  years  before,  bringing  with  him  an  assortment 
of  books,  Irish  linens  and  other  merchandise.  The 
necessity  of  some  organ  to  defend  the  Crown  was  ap- 
parent to  the  shrewd  Scotchman,  who  formed  a  partner- 
ship w4th  John  Fleming,  another  Scotchman  then  resident 
in  the  colony.  Fleming  was  sent  abroad  to  procure  the 
best  materials  and  workmen  possible.  They  opened  a 
printing  shop  in  1 766,  and  the  following  year  the  Chroni- 
cle was  brought  out. 

As  might  be  expected,  this  representative  of  authority 
was  mechanically  superior  to  those  journals  which  were 
dependent  on  popular  support.  It  was  the  most  ambi- 
tious endeavor  in  newspaper  printing  that  the  continent 
had  yet  seen.  It  was  printed  on  a  whole  sheet  quarto, 
after  the  fashion  of  the  London  Chronicle,  containing  only 
reading  matter  in  the  way  of  news  and  extracts  from 
the  European  papers.  Despite  the  fact  that  its  superiority 
was  commented  on,  it  sold  at  the  same  price  as  the  other 
Boston  papers.  It  was  unquestionably  subsidized  by  the 
British  Government. 

The  neutrality  which  was  at  first  assumed,  soon  began 
to  give  way  to  the  necessity  for  espousing  the  weakening 


84  HISTORY  OF  JOURNALISM 

Loyalist  cause,  and  Mein  undertook  the  abuse  of  the 
Whig  leaders  in  Boston.  The  result  was  that  public 
indignation  was  so  thoroughly  aroused  against  him  that 
he  was  obliged  to  leave  the  colony,  sailing  for  England 
in  1769.  Very  shortly  after  the  Chronicle  began  to  fall 
away,  even  with  the  bolstering-up  that  the  Colonial  Gov- 
ernor gave  it,  and  it  was  discontinued  in  1770.  ^^ 

The  endeavor  to  reach  those  who  were  not  as  yet  in- 
terested in  the  newspapers  led  Zechariah  Fowle  and  Isaiah 
Thomas  to  bring  out  the  Massachusetts  Spy,  August  7, 
1770.  "  It  was  calculated,"  says  Thomas,  ''  to  obtain 
subscriptions  from  mechanics  and  other  classes  of  people 
who  had  not  much  time  to  spare  from  business."  Three 
issues  a  week  were  planned  and  the  first  number  was 
scattered  free  throughout  the  town.  The  venture,  how- 
ever, was  premature,  and  at  the  end  of  a  month  the  noble 
design  succumbed. 

The  following  year  Thomas  brought  out  a  paper  of 
the  same  name,  with  the  announcement  that  it  was  ''  open 
to  all  parties,  but  influenced  by  none."  In  two  years, 
he  says,  his  paper  had  the  largest  circulation  in  New 
England.  ^^  At  first  the  Tories  contributed  a  few  es- 
says, but  its  Whig  leanings  were  evident,  and  it  soon  be- 
came an  outspoken  supporter  of  the  Liberty  cause. 

The  Loyalists  gave  warning  in  1774  that,  in  the  event 
of  an  outbreak,  not  only  the  leaders  of  the  patriots  but 
"  those  trumpeters  of  sedition,  the  printers,  Edes  and 
Gill  and  Thomas  "  would  be  properly  punished. 

Thomas,  who  was  the  sole  controlling  factor  in  his 
own  paper,  was  much  more  vehement  than  Edes  and 
Gill,  who  allowed  the  more  scholarly  writers  to  control 
their  policy;  Thomas  was  trying  to  arouse  the  laboring 

10  Sabine,  The  American  Loyalists,  463. 
'^'^  History  of  Printing  in  America  ii,  249. 


THE  ASSUMPTION  OF  POLITICAL  POWER      85 

class,  the  plain  people,  whereas  the  Gazette  appealed  to 
the  more  cultivated. 

In  his, narrative  of  newspapers,  ^^  Dr.  Eliot  said  of 
these  writers  for  the  Spy  that  they  were  "  most  of  them 
young  men  of  genius,  without  experience  in  business 
or  knowledge  of  the  world."  But  it  is  of  such  men 
that  enthusiasm  for  the  right  is  born.  They  furnish 
the  passion  without  which  there  cannot  be  war,  when 
many  of  those  who,  while  seeing  the  righteousness  of 
war,  are  dominated  by  intellect,  weaken  and  hesitate. 

It  is  to  Thomas  that  we  are  indebted  for  the  first  his- 
tory of  journalism,  which  is  included  in  his  compre- 
hensive History  of  Printing,  published  in  18 10.  In  his 
own  resume  of  this  period,  commenting  on  the  part  that 
the  journals  played  in  preparing  the  public  mind,  and 
his  own  endeavors  to  arouse  the  laboring  classes,  he  says : 
*'  Common  sense  in  common  language  is  necessary  to  in- 
fluence one  class  of  citizens  as  much  as  learning  and 
elegance  of  composition  are  to  produce  an  effect  upon 
another.  The  cause  of  America  was  just;  and  it  was 
only  necessary  to  state  this  cause  in  a  clear  and  im- 
pressive manner  to  unite  the  American  people  in  its  sup- 
port." 13 

This  is  the  statement  of  Thomas,  one  of  the  men  who 
fought  for  the  cause,  not  only  as  a  publicist  but  as  a 
soldier  —  as  one  of  the  journalists  of  Liberty,  as  well 
as  of  America.  He  knew  better  than  any  modern  his- 
torian w^hat  it  was  that  aroused  the  colonists,  what  it 
was  that  made  them  fight.  It  is  an  eloquent  tribute  to 
democracy  as  wxll  as  to  journalism. 

When  the  young  printer  began  the  publication  of  the 
Massachusetts  Spy,  he  was  in  his  twenty-seventh  year. 

'^^Massachusetts  Historical  Collections,  i,  64-79. 
^^  History  of  Printing  in  America,  ii,  251. 


86  HISTORY  OF  JOURNALISM 

He  tried  to  be  fair  to  the  Government,  but  his  convictions 
were  all  with  the  colonists.  At  first  the  Government 
tried  to  buy  him.  Failing  in  this,  more  strenuous 
methods  were  attempted,  but  he  was  undaunted  and  con- 
tinued to  increase  his  circulation  and  his  influence.  He 
was  prosecuted  for  libel  but  no  indictment  could  be  ob- 
tained. His  vehemence  attracted  attention  throughout 
the  country  and  his  paper  was  burned  by  the  hangman. 
Several  attempts,  he  says,  were  made  to  prosecute  him; 
the  Loyalists  in  North  Carolina  burned  him  in  effigy, 
and  a  regiment  of  British  soldiers  paraded  before  his 
house,  threatening  to  tar  and  feather  him. 

The  part  of  the  papers  grew  more  important  as  the 
contest  grew  warmer.  John  Adams  was  disturbed,  as 
one  might  expect,  by  the  vehemence  of  Thomas,  ^^  but 
that  vehemence  was  necessary,  in  order  to  arouse  and  stir 
the  people.  With  the  issue  of  July  7,  1774,  Thomas 
threw  all  caution  to  the  winds  and  his  paper  appeared 
with  ''  a  new  device,"  a  snake  and  a  dragon.  This  de- 
vice was  spread  across  the  paper;  the  dragon  represent- 
ing Great  Britain  and  the  snake,  which  was  divided  into 
nine  parts,  representing  the  colonies.  Under  it,  in  large 
letters,  were  the  words,  *'  Join  or  Die!  "  "  This  device," 
Thomas  proudly  stated  in  his  history,  ''  appeared  in 
every  succeeding  paper  whilst  it  was  printed  in  Boston." 

Like  Franklin  and  some  of  the  earlier  printers  in  the 
colonies,  Thomas  was  not  satisfied  with  the  paper  in  Bos- 
ton alone,  but  reached  out  and  established  a  paper  in  New- 
buryport,  called  the  Essex  Journal.  As  the  situation 
grew  more  critical  in  Boston,  however,  he  sold  this,  and 
his  efforts  were  restricted  to  the  Massachusetts  Spy,  which 
assumed  such  an  important  part  in  the  conflict  that  it  was 
openly  said  that,  the  day  the  British  actually  began  hos- 

'^'^ Familiar  Letters  of  John  Adams  to  His  Wife,  11. 


THE  ASSUMPTION  OF  POLITICAL  POWER       87 

tilities,  Thomas  would  be  among  the  first  to  sufifer.  An- 
ticipating their  action,  he  brought  out  his  last  number  in 
Boston  on  April  6,  1775,  and  quietly  started  moving  his 
types  and  press  to  Worcester.  On  the  19th  of  April,  hos- 
tilities began,  but  Thomas  was  safely  away  and,  on  the 
3rd  of  May,  he  reissued  the  Spy  from  the  town  of  Wor- 
cester. 

It  is  from  a  contemporary  Loyalist  writer,  Thomas 
Jones,  that  one  gets  the  best  view  of  the  journalistic 
activities  of  the  New  York  patriots  of  that  time.  The 
history  of  Judge  Jones  is  a  far  from  non-partisan 
performance,  but  it  abounds  in  spicy  information.  In 
1752  the  \\'hig  Club  was  formed,  by  William  Livingston, 
William  Smith  and  John  Alorin  Scott  —  all  graduates  of 
Yale,  "  A  college  remarkable  for  its  persecuting  spirit,  its 
republican  principles,  its  intolerance  in  religion  and  its 
utter  aversion  to  Bishops  and  all  Earthly  Kings."  ^^ 

The  club  proceeded  at  once  to  attack  the  established 
church  and  to  deride  monarchy,  by  bringing  out  a  weekly 
paper  called  the  Independent  Reflector,  and  later  one 
called  the  Watch  Tower.  The  latter  was  really  the  front 
page  of  Gaine's  Mercury,  written  by  William  Livingston ; 
the  former  was  distinguished  through  the  fact  that  the 
Reverend  Aaron  Burr,  Smith,  Livingston  and  Scott  were 
the  principal  contributors.  It  was  printed  by  one  James 
Parker. 

Jones  further  informs  us  that  in  the  American  Whig, 
published  in  1769,  the  villainous  statement  was  printed 
that  ''  this  country  will  shortly  become  a  great  and  flour- 
ishing empire,  independent  of  Great  Britain;  enjoying  its 
civil  and  religious  liberty,  uncontaminated  and  deserted  of 
all  control  from  Bishops,  the  curse  of  curses,  and  from 
the  subjection  of  all  earthly  kings."  The  General  As- 
15  Jones,  History  of  New  York,  i,  5. 


88  HISTORY  OF  JOURNALISM 

sembly  having  been  won  over  to  the  side  of  the  crown, 
numerous  attacks  were  made  upon  it,  among  them  a 
printed  handbill  accusing  its  members  of  treachery.  A 
reward  was  offered  for  information  as  to  the  author,  with 
the  result  that  James  Parker,  who  had  printed  it,  and  who 
was  threatened  with  the  loss  of  the  small  political  posi- 
tion he  held,  gave  information  that  Alexander  McDou- 
gall  was  the  author. 

"  The  method  lately  used  in  New  York  to  post  up 
inflammatory  handbills,"  states  a  contemporary  of  this 
particularly  famous  one,  "  was  the  same  as  used  in  Eng- 
land at  the  time  of  the  Pretender.  It  was  done  by  a  man 
who  carried  a  little  boy  in  a  box  like  a  magic  lantern,  and 
while  he  leaned  against  the  wall,  as  if  to  rest  himself,  the 
boy  drew  back  the  slide,  pasted  on  the  paper,  and  shutting 
himself  up  again,  the  man  took  the  proper  occasion  to 
walk  off  to  another  resting-place." 

Concerning  McDougall's  activities  during  the  war,  his 
short  biographies  are  explicit,  but  of  his  career  up  to  that 
time,  it  is  to  the  unfriendly  Jones  that  we  must  turn.  He 
was  the  son  of  a  poor  milkman,  we  are  told,  who  had 
taken  up  seafaring  as  a  vocation,  finally  becoming  the 
captain  of  a  privateer. 

The  Tory  historian  pays  him  an  unusual  tribute :  "  He 
was  a  principal  promoter  and  encourager  of  the  unhappy 
disputes  which  raged  with  such  violence  in  the  colony  for 
many  years,  terminated  in  a  rebellion,  in  a  dismember- 
ment of  the  empire,  in  almost  a  total  destruction  of  thir- 
teen valuable  provinces  and  in  the  loss  of  not  less  than 
100,000  brave  men.^^ 

Surely  such  a  man  is  worthy  of  our  attention,  espe- 
cially in  view  of  the  fact  that  he  was,  if  not  one  of  the 
editors,  at  least  one  of  the  principal  contributors  to  Holt's 

^^  Jones,  History  of  New  York,  i,  26. 


THE  ASSUMPTION  OF  POLITICAL  POWER      89 

paper,  the  New  York  Journal,  which  now  became  the 
leading  organ  of  the  patriots. 

McDougall  was  arrested  on  the  information  of  Parker; 
he  refused  to  give  bail  and  was  committed  to  prison. 
Because  of  the  connection  of  the  number  forty-five  with 
his  commitment  —  the  proceedings  of  the  Assembly  vot- 
ing the  handbill  libelous  were  printed  on  the  forty-fifth 
page  of  the  journal  of  that  body  —  "45"  became  a 
magic  number  for  the  patriots.  It  was  also  the  number 
of  John  Wilkes's  North  Briton,  which  had  been  declared 
by  the  House  of  Commons  to  be  a  scandalous  and  sedi- 
tious libel. 

The  Journal  continued  to  make  a  hero  of  him,  regal- 
ing the  public  with  the  exhilarating  information  that  on 
the  45th  day  of  the  year,  45  gentlemen  went  down  to  jail 
and  dined  with  Captain  McDougall  on  45  pounds  of 
beef,  cut  from  a  bullock  45  months  old,  drank  45  bottles 
of  wine  in  45  toasts,  etc.  The  use  of  numbers  as  rally- 
ing cries  was  then  in  vogue,  not  only  in  New  York  but 
'-  in  Massachusetts,  where,  when  Governor  Bernard  asked 
the  colony  to  rescind  its  circular  letter  to  the  other 
colonies,  the  request  was  rejected  by  a  vote  of  92  to  17. 
The  "  Illustrious  92  "  then  became  a  favorite  toast  of  all 
gatherings  of  the  patriots. 

McDougall  was  not  liberated  until  March  4,  1771.  ^^ 
After  his  first  short  term  in  jail,  he  gave  bail,  but  the 
suit  was  never  prosecuted.  In  the  following  December, 
he  was  arraigned  before  the  Assembly;  because  of  his 
answers  he  was  held  in  ''  high  contempt "  and  was  again 
sent  to  jail  w^hen  the  Assembly  was  prorogued. ^^ 

McDougall's  own  account  of  his  arrest  was  printed  in 
Holt's  Journal,  February  9,  1770,  dated  from  the  "  New 

'^''Documents  Relative  to  Colonial  History  New  York,  viii,  213. 
1*  Documentary  History  of  New  York,  i,  323. 


90  HISTORY  OF  JOURNALISM 

Gaol  "  and  addressed  "  To  the  Freeholders,  Freemen  and 
Inhabitants  of  the  Colony  of  New  York  and  to  all  the 
friends  of  Liberty  in  North  America." 

He  was  brought  into  the  presence  of  the  Chief 
Justice : 

''  His  Honor  said  to  me : 

"  '  So,  you  have  brought  yourself  into  a  pretty  scrap.' 

"  To  which  I  replied  : 

*' '  May  it  please  your  Honor,  that  must  be  judged  by 
my  peers.' 

**  He  then  told  me  that  it  w^as  fully  proven  that  I  was 
the  author  or  publisher  of  the  above  mentioned  paper, 
which  he  called  '  a  false,  vile,  and  scandalous  libel.' 

**  I  replied  again : 

**  'This  also  must  be  decided  by  my  peers.'  "  ^^ 

When  McDougall,  almost  a  year  later,  was  called  be- 
fore the  Assembly  to  answ^er  to  the  indictment  for  libel, 
he  refused  to  answer  questions  on  the  ground  that  they 
would  tend  to  incriminate  him. 

"  The  House  has  power  to  extort  an  answer,  and  will 
punish  you  for  contumacy  if  you  refuse  to  reply,"  stated 
De  Noyellis,  who  was  responsible  for  the  charge. 

*'  The  House  has  power  to  throw  the  prisoner  over  the 
bar  or  out  of  the  window,  but  the  public  will  doubt  the 
justice  of  the  proceedings,"  exclaimed  George  Clinton  — 
later  to  be  the  first  Governor  of  New  York  State  —  who 
was  the  onty  lawyer  who  dared  appear  for  McDougall.  ^^ 

While  there  were  many  distinguished  contributors,  the 
important  editors  of  this  period  were  Hugh  Gaine  and 
John  Holt.  The  New  York  Mercury  came  out  in  1752, 
under  the  auspices  of  Gaine;  but  it  was  the  New  York 
Journal  or  General  Advertiser,  issued  by  Holt  in  1770, 

^^  New  York  Journal,  February  15,  1770,  2,  3. 

20  Booth,  History  of  the  City  of  New  York,  ii,  461. 


THE  ASSUMPTION  OF  POLITICAL  POWER       91 

which  remained  the  organ  of  the  Liberty  Party  until 
the  capture  of  the  city  in  1776. 

Gaine  was  made  famous  by  PhiHp  Freneau,  who  at- 
tacked him  in  verse.  He  was  an  industrious  journahst, 
for  he  not  only  collected  his  news  and  set  it  up,  but 
printed  his  papers,  folded  them  and  delivered  them.  His 
career  indicates  that  he  was  of  a  volatile  disposition,  and 
he  was  accused  of  taking  whichever  side  of  a  question 
was  the  most  profitable. 

John  Holt  had  begun  his  career  in  New  York  as  an 
associate  of  James  Parker,  the  informant  on  McDougall. 
Parker,  one  of  Bradford's  apprentices,  had  established  in 
1743,  with  the  backing  of  Franklin,  a  new  weekly,  called 
the  New  York  Gazette  or  Weekly  Post  Boy,  which  was 
a  continuation  of  William  Bradford's  periodical.  The 
same  year  he  began  the  publication  of  a  monthly  called 
the  American  Magazine  and  Historical  Chronicle.^^ 
Parker,  with  William  Weyman,  whom  he  had  taken  in 
as  a  partner,  was  arrested  in  1756  for  printing  an  article 
offensive  to  the  Assembly,  but  both  were  discharged 
almost  immediately  on  apologizing  to  the  Legislature, 
paying  a  fine,  and  giving  the  name  of  the  writer  of  the 
article,  a  missionary  named  Hezekiah  Watkins. 

Holt  was  the  editor  of  the  Gazette  up  to  1766,  when 
he  brought  out  or  revived  the  New  York  Journal.  He 
early  established  a  reputation  for  courage  and  patriotism. 
The  attitude  of  the  public  toward  him  is  shown  in  a  letter 
which  he  printed  in  1765,  and  which  he  declared  had  been 
thrown  into  his  printing  house: 

"Dulce  et  decorum  est,  pro  Patria  mori. 

"  Mr.  Holt,  as  you  have  hitherto  proved  yourself  a  Friend  to 
Liberty,  by  publishing  some  Compositions  as  had  a  Tendency  to 
promote  the  Cause,  we  are  encouraged  to  hope  you  v^ill  not  be 

21  Booth,  History  of  the  City  of  New  York,  i,  382. 


92  HISTORY  OF  JOURNALISM 

deterred  from  continuing  your  useful  Paper  by  groundless  Fear 
of  the  detestable  Stamp-Act.  However,  should  you  at  this  criti- 
cal time,  shut  up  the  Press,  and  basely  desert  us,  depend  upon 
it,  your  House,  Person  and  Effects,  will  be  in  imminent  Danger : 
We  shall,  therefore,  expect  your  paper  on  Thursday  as  usual; 
if  not,  on  Thursday  Evening  —  take  care.  Signed  in  the  Names 
and  by  the  Order  of  a  great  Number  of  the  Free-born  Sons  of 
^^^^o'^'  "John  Hampden."  « 

"  On  the  Turf,  the  2nd  of  November,  1765." 

It  is  interesting  also  to  read  his  statement  that  offense 
had  been  given  to  many  of  the  inhabitants  of  the  city 
by  the  advertisement  of  a  play  at  a  time  of  public  distress 
"  when  great  numbers  of  poor  people  can  scarce  find 
means  to  subsist."  ^^  The  play  was  produced,  and  the 
indignation  of  the  public  over  the  fact  that  people  should 
go  to  a  place  of  entertainment  at  a  time  when  others  were 
starving  caused  a  mob  to  break  in  and  gut  the  theater  — 
**  many  lost  their  hats  and  other  parts  of  dress." 

Although  not  as  virulent  nor  as  able  as  the  Boston 
Gazette,  or  the  Massachusetts  Spy,  from  this  time  on 
Holt  gave  the  patriots  a  service  that  was  second  only  to 
that  of  the  New  England  papers.  In  1774  he  dropped 
the  King's  arms  from  the  first  page,  substituting  for  it 
Franklin's  serpent  cut  in  pieces,  with  the  motto  "  Unite 
or  Die."  When  the  British  took  possession  of  New  York 
he  moved  to  Esopus,  now  Kingston,  and  when  that  vil- 
lage was  burned  in  1777,  he  went  to  Poughkeepsie,  and 
there  stayed  until  the  peace  of  1783,  when  he  came  back 
to  New  York  and  continued  his  publication,  the  title  of 
which  was  the  Independent  Gazette  or  the  New  York 
Journal  Revived. 

The  heartiest  response  to  the  newspaper  and  patriotic 
activities  of  Boston  naturally  came  from  the  New  Eng- 

22  New  York  Gazette,  November  7,  1765. 
^^New  York  Gazette,  May  13,  1766. 


THE  ASSUMPTION  OF  POLITICAL  POWER      93 

land  colonies.  The  desire  to  have  a  paper  in  Rhode 
Island  that  would  more  fairly  represent  the  point  of  view 
of  the  Whigs  than  did  the  Newport  Mercury,  the  one 
paper  published  there,  led  the  Governor  to  encourage 
William  Goddard,  one  of  the  famous  printers  of  the  time, 
to  establish  the  first  printing  press  in  Providence,  and  in 
1762  to  publish  a  newspaper  there,  the  Providence 
Gazette. 

What  Samuel  Adams  and  his  group  were  doing  in 
Boston,  Stephen  Hopkins,  the  Governor  of  Rhode  Island 
—  "a  far-seeing  and  accomplished  statesman,"  compar- 
able in  intellectual  traits  with  Benjamin  Franklin,  accord- 
ing to  one  authority  —  did  almost  as  well  in  that  little 
colony.  ^^  He  was  not  only  the  author  of  a  strong 
pamphlet  that  drew  out  the  ''  Halifax  Gentleman,"  the 
first  Loyalist  writer  in  the  field,  but  his  contributions  to 
the  Providence  Gazette  ^^  helped  to  build  the  paper  up 
as  a  patriotic  organ,  to  counteract  the  efforts  of  the 
Loyalists,  and  to  arouse  the  men  of  the  colony  to  a  full 
sympathy  with  the  patriots  of  Boston. 

William  Goddard,  the  publisher  of  this  paper,  was  as 
important  in  his  field  as  Hopkins  was  in  his.  Not  meet- 
ing with  sufficient  encouragement  in  Providence,  which 
was  a  small  place,  he  moved  to  New  York  and  worked 
with  John  Holt  on  the  New  York  Gazette  and  Post 
Boy.^^  In  1766  he  went  to  Philadelphia  and  became 
the  partner  of  Galloway  and  Wharton,  both  Loyalists, 
in  the  Pennsylvania  Chronicle.  In  1773,  having  found 
the  venture  unprofitable,  Goddard  went  to  Baltimore, 
where  he  started  another  newspaper.  Here  he  devoted 
himself  to  working  out  a  plan  for  a  line  of  post-riders 

2*  Tyler,  Literary  History  of  the  American  Revolution,  64. 

25  W.  G.  Foster,  Stephen  Hopkins,  ii.  48. 

26  Sabine,  The  American  Loyalists,  326. 


94  HISTORY  OF  JOURNALISM 

from  New  Hampshire  to  Georgia,  in  opposition  to  the 
Post  Office  estabHshment  of  the  crown.  He  traveled 
through  the  colonies,  leaving  the  care  of  his  printing  af- 
fairs to  his  sister.  The  scheme  was  successful,  and  he 
was  made  surveyor  of  the  roads,  expecting  to  succeed 
Franklin  as  Postmaster  General. 

Bache,  Franklin's  son-in-law,  was  appointed  to  suc- 
ceed him,  and  Goddard,  in  disgust,  threw  up  his  position 
and  resumed  the  publication  of  the  Maryland  Journal. 
Two  articles  which  he  printed  in  1777  caused  the  Balti- 
more Whig  Club  to  notify  him  to  get  out  of  town.  He 
appealed  to  the  Assembly  for  protection  and  remained 
in  town,  but  was  mobbed  on  several  occasions.  In  1792 
he  sold  his  press  and  moved  to  Rhode  Island. 

Goddard  was  an  intimate  friend  of  General  Charles 
Lee,  who  had  endeavored  to  supplant  Washington  as 
Commander-in-Chief,  and,  failing,  had  retired  in  disgrace 
after  the  battle  of  Monmouth  in  1778.  Lee  was  the 
writer  of  ''  Queries,"  which  brought  Goddard  into  trouble 
with  the  Whig  Club  in  1779.  ^^  At  his  death  in  1782, 
Lee  bequeathed  valuable  real  estate  in  Virginia  to  God- 
dard, and  also  his  private  papers.  While  preparing  these 
for  publication,  Goddard  informed  Washington  of  their 
contents,  assuring  him  of  his  wish  to  avoid  injuring  his 
feelings.  The  answer  of  Washington  is  worthy  of  re- 
production : 

"Mount  Vernon,  nth  June,  1785. 
"  Sir: 

"  On  the  8th  inst.  I  received  the  favour  of  your  letter  of  the 
30th  of  May.  In  answer  to  it  I  can  only  say,  that  your  own 
good  judgment  must  direct  you  in  the  publication  of  the  manu- 
script papers  of  General  Lee.  I  can  have  no  request  to  make 
concerning  the  work. 

"  I  never  had  a  difference  with  that  gentleman,  but  on  public 
ground;  and  my  conduct  toward  him  upon  this  occasion,  was 

27  Sabine,  The  American  Loyalist,  328. 


THE  ASSUMPTION  OF  POLITICAL  POWER      95 

only  such  as  I  conceived  myself  indispensably  bound  to  adopt  in 
discharge  of  the  public  trust  reposed  in  me.  If  this  produced 
in  him  unfavorable  sentiments  of  me,  I  yet  can  never  consider 
the  conduct  I  pursued  wnth  respect  to  him  either  wrong  or  im- 
proper, however  I  may  regret  that  it  may  have  been  differently 
viewed  by  him,  and  that  it  excited  his  censure  and  animad- 
versions. 

"  Should  there  appear  in  General  Lee's  writings  anything  in- 
jurious or  unfriendly  to  me,  the  impartial  and  dispassionate 
world  must  decide  how  far  I  deserved  it  from  the  general  tenor 
of  my  conduct.  I  am  gliding  down  the  stream  of  life,  and 
wish,  as  is  natural,  that  my  remaining  days  may  be  undisturbed 
and  tranquil;  and,  conscious  of  my  integrity,  I  would  willingly 
hope  that  nothing  will  occur  to  give  me  anxiety;  but  should 
anything  present  itself  in  this  or  in  any  other  publication,  I 
shall  never  undertake  the  painful  task  of  recrimination,  nor  do 
I  know  that  I  shall  even  enter  upon  my  justification, 

"  I  consider  the  communication  you  have  made,  as  a  mark  of 
great  attention,  and  the  whole  of  your  letter  as  a  proof  of  your 
esteem.     I  am,  Sir,  your  most  obedient  humble  servant, 

-,     ^    ,,     ,  "  George  Washington."  28 

Mr.  Goddard. 


Connecticut  showed  a  steady  development.  The  first 
paper  in  that  colony  appeared  in  the  same  year  with  the 
Boston  Gazette,  1755.  The  Connecticut  Gazette,  as  it 
was  called,  was  the  enterprise  of  James  Parker  and 
John  Holt. 

The  New  London  Summary,  which  appeared  on  Au- 
gust  8,  1758,  the  title  afterward  being  changed  to  the 
New  London  Gazette,  brought  to  the  fore  the  indefatig- 
able Green  family,  whose  contributions  to  printing  and 
journalism  grew  like  the  family  tree,  for  wherever  a  mem- 
ber of  this  family  was  to  be  found,  there  was  a  pioneer 
with  the  printing  press. 

A  most  important  addition  to  the  patriotic  papers  was 
the  Connecticut  Courant,  brought  out  by  Thomas  Green 
at   Hartford   in   December,    1764,    the   same   Hartford 

28  Thomas,  ii,  357,  358. 


96  HISTORY  OF  JOURNALISM 

Bartholomew  Green,  the  Emigrant,  arrived  1632. 

I 

Samuel, 
came  with  father;  printed  the  Indian  Bible;  d.  1702 
aged  88;  Cambridge. 


Samuel,  Bartholomew, 

b.  1648,  d.  1690  d.  1732 

Boston  Boston 

I  I 

Timothy,  Bartholomew,  Jr. 

b.    1679,   Boston;  Boston 

removed  to  New  London,  1714;  1751  removed  to 

d.  1757  Nova  Scotia 

I  I 

Timothy,  John 

Boston;  Boston; 

removed  in  1752  to  New  London.  d.  1787 


Samuel,    d.    1752;    with  Nathaniel,                        Jonas, 

his  father ;  his  three  sons  New  London             Philadelphia  and 

were    printers    in    Con-  Annapolis        29 

necticut 

C  our  ant  that  ranks  as  one  of  the  leading  papers  of  the 
country  to-day.  In  conjunction  with  Samuel  Green,  the 
proprietor  of  the  Hartford  paper  brought  out  the  Con- 
necticut Journal  and  New  Haven  Post  Boy  in  October, 
1767.  In  this  paper  appeared  the  earlier  essays  of  John 
Trumbull,  one  of  the  first  of  America's  poets.  Not  the 
least  interesting  point  in  Trumbull's  many-sided  career 
appears  in  a  news  item  in  the  Connecticut  Gazette  for 
September  24,  1757.  This  states  that,  at  the  age  of  seven, 
he  passed  the  entrance  examination  to  Yale,  a  feat  which 
necessitated  his  being  able  to  write  Latin  prose  and  to 
read  Cicero  and  Virgil,  as  well  as  the  four  Gospels  in 
Greek.     While  taking  the  examination,  he  was  held  in  the 

2»  Memorial  History  of  Boston,  ii,  406. 


THE  ASSUMPTION  OF  POLITICAL  POWER      97 

lap  of  another  student,  the  grown-up  student  being  twelve 
years  old.  It  was  Trumbull's  ambition,  as  expressed  in 
the  series  of  essays  that  he  contributed  to  the  Journal, 
to  reforrri  the  controversial  manners  of  a  time  when,  as 
he  said  later,  *'  the  press  groaned  with  controversy,"  and 
when  the  writing  was  marked  with  *'  absurd  pedantry, 
unrelenting  partisanship  and  the  extravagance  of  mis- 
representation." ^^  To  be  remembered,  in  connection 
with  the  future  developments  of  journalism  in  America, 
is  the  fact  that  in  one  of  these  essays  he  attacked  those 
Americans  and  Christians  who  were  building  up  for- 
tunes through  their  participation  in  the  African  slave 
trade.  ^^ 

It  was  in  the  New  London  Gazette,  beginning  Septem- 
ber 6,  1765,  that  Stephen  Johnson  published  his  five 
essays  addressed  to  the  Freemen  of  the  colony  of  Con- 
necticut. In  them  he  not  only  protested  against  the  right 
of  the  British  Government  to  tax  the  colonies  against 
their  will,  but,  with  a  boldness  unusual  at  that  time, 
against  conditions  that,  if  continued,  would  result  in  a 
*'  bloody  revolution."  Like  others  of  the  men  who  used 
the  pen  to  arouse  the  colonists,  Johnson  was  a  Congre- 
gational pastor.  He  afterwards  showed  on  the  battle 
field  that  he  had  the  courage  of  his  convictions. 

In  Virginia,  ''  unaided  by  an  active  press  they  learned 
from  nature  what  others  learned  from  philosophy."  ^^ 
While  it  was  not  through  journalism  or  the  printing- 
press  that  Virginia  was  to  make  its  principal  contribu- 
tion to  the  pre-Revolutionary  contest,  the  importance  of 
a  paper  +hat  would  set  forth  the  Whig  cause  was  seen 
by  no  less  a  person  than  Thomas  Jefferson. 

'0  Tyler,  Literary  History,  200. 

*i  Connecticut  Gazette,  July  6,  1770. 

»2  Bancroft,  History  of  the  United  States,  iii,  87. 


98  HISTORY  OF  JOURNALISM 

In  the  other  colonies  the  newspapers,  as  they  appeared, 
echoed  more  or  less  vigorously  the  defiance  proclaimed 
by  the  larger  cities.  No  paper  was  publi-shed  in  New 
Hampshire  until  August,  1756,  when  Daniel  Fowle 
started  the  New  Hampshire  Gazette  at  Portsmouth.  It 
came  out  vigorously  against  the  Stamp  Act,  and  con- 
tinued to  be  published  as  usual  without  stamps.  Fowle 
regarded  his  own  experience  with  the  Boston  authorities 
as  a  good  example  of  a  tyrannical  government  suppress- 
ing a  free  press,  and  as  late  as  1770  he  reprinted  parts 
of  Andrew  Hamilton's  speech  in  behalf  of  Zenger,  as 
matter  that  his  countrymen  should  have  ever  in  mind. 

In  January,  1765,  the  Portsmouth  Mercury  and  Week- 
ly Advertiser  appeared.  In  its  opening  address  to  the 
public  it  announced  that  it  would  print  all  the  news,  even 
if  opposed  by  an  ''  arbitrary  power,"  since  the  news  was 
necessary  to  the  people  if  they  were  to  have  those  liber- 
ties which  were  ''  dearer  to  them  than  their  lives."  The 
paper,  however,  was  not  as  well  handled  or  printed  as 
the  Gazette,  and  succumbed  at  the  end  of  three  years. 

To  summarize,  there  were  in  1775,  five  newspapers 
published  in  Boston,  one  at  Salem,  and  one  at  Newbury- 
port,  making  seven  in  Massachusetts.  There  was  at 
that  time  one  published  at  Portsmouth  and  no  other  in 
New  Hampshire.  One  was  printed  at  Newport,  and 
one  at  Providence,  making  two  in  Rhode  Island.  At 
New  London  there  was  one,  at  New  Haven  one,  and  one 
at  Hartford;  in  all,  three  in  Connecticut;  and  thirteen 
in  New  England.  In  the  province  of  New  York,  three 
papers  were  then  published,  all  in  the  City  of  New  York. 
In  Pennsylvania  there  were  on  the  first  of  January,  1775, 
six ;  three  in  English  and  one  in  German,  in  Philadelphia ; 
one  in  German  at  Germantown;  and  one  in  English  and 
German  at  Lancaster.     Before  the  end  of  January,  1775, 


THE  ASSUMPTION  OF  POLITICAL  POWER      99 

two  newspapers  in  English  were  added  to  the  number 
from  the  presses  in  Philadelphia,  making  eight  in  Penn- 
sylvania. In  Maryland  two;  one  at  Annapolis,  and  one 
at  Baltimore.  In  Virginia,  there  were  but  two,  both  of 
these  at  Williamsburg.  One  was  printed  at  Wilming- 
ton, and  one  at  Newbern,  in  North  Carolina;  and  one 
at  Savannah  in  Georgia,  making  thirty-four  newspapers 
in  all  the  British  colonies  which  are  now  comprised  in 
the  United  States.  ^^       -^ 

33  History  of  Printing,  ii,  187,  188. 


CHAPTER  VIII 

THE  BOSTON  GAZETTE  AND  SAMUEL  ADAMS 

Adams  a  great  journalist  —  His  remarkable  industry  — Asso- 
ciated with  Jonathan  Mayhew  —  New  group  takes  up  patri- 
otic struggle  —  Gazette  office  headquarters  of  patriots  —  Bos- 
ton Tea  Party  planned  there  —  James  Otis  and  Joseph  Warren 
among  editorial  contributors  —  Important  contributions  of 
John  Adams  —  Notable  writings  of  Samuel  Adams  —  Attacks 
on  Gazette  —  Edes  and  Gill  threatened  —  The  days  before  the 
Revolution  —  Edes  dies  in  obscure  poverty. 

If  Massachusetts  was  the  leader  in  the  events  before 
the  Revolution,  and  she  unquestionably  was,  Samuel 
Adams  was  the  leader  in  Massachusetts,  and  the  organ 
through  which  he  swayed  the  people  was  the  Boston 
Gazette.  There  is  not  an  American  schoolboy  who  is 
not  familiar  with  the  names  of  Samuel  Adams,  "  Father 
of  the  Revolution  "  and  of  John  Adams,  "  Statesman  of 
the  Revolution,"  but  probably  very  few  people  are  fully 
aware  of  the  great  extent  to  which  these  two  used,  and 
how  much  they  relied  on,  that  very  important  pre-Revo- 
lutionary  newspaper. 

The  history  of  the  Boston  Gazette  is  the  history  of  its 
influence,  which  came  not  only  from  its  notable  con- 
tributors, but  from  its  courageous  and  able  editors  and 
printers,  Benjamin  Edes  and  John  Gill.  It  takes  not  a 
tithe  from  the  statesmanlike  reputation  of  Sam  Adams 
that  he  was,  after  Franklin,  America's  greatest  journalist, 
though  indifference  to  this  aspect  of  his  career  has  been 
the  attitude  of  most  of  the  historians  of  this  period. 

In  order  to  write  adequately  the  history  of  journalism, 

100 


THE  BOSTON  GAZETTE  AND  S.U'TXJEL  ADAM'S     lOl 

it  is  necessary  to  re-read  the  documents  and  publications 
of  this  period;  even  the  writers  of  later  date  have  writ- 
ten under  the  prejudice  against  journalism  that  marked 
its  beginning.  It  is  not  until  we  have  such  modern  and 
broad-minded  historians  as  Rhodes,  McMaster  and 
Roosevelt  that  we  begin  to  get  a  proper  appreciation  of 
the  part  played  by  journalism,  even  in  the  primitive  sec- 
tions. 

Samuel  Adams  was  born  in  Boston  in  1722,  and  grad- 
uated from  Harvard  in  1740.  An  undergraduate  essay 
was  on  **  Liberty,"  showing  the  drift  of  his  mind;  and, 
from  the  time  when  it  became  evident  to  him  that  there 
could  not  be  happiness  in  the  colonies  until  England  had 
receded  from  her  position,  he  never  neglected  an  oppor- 
tunity to  stir  the  colonists  in  every  way  possible. 

His  biographer  tells  us  that  the  Boston  people,  going 
home  late  at  night,  would  pause  as  they  passed  his  win- 
dow, where  the  lights  shone  far  into  the  morning  hours, 
and  observe  that  it  was  "  old  Sam  Adams  "  writing  the 
pieces  for  the  paper  that  roused  his  countrymen  to  a  sense 
of  their  wrongs.  It  was  not  alone  what  he  wrote  him- 
self, but  what  he  succeeded  in  getting  others  to  write, 
that  stirred  the  people.  He  was  an  industrious  editor, 
engaged  in  a  great  campaign,  continually  suggesting  to 
able  men  that  they  take  up  this  or  that  question  in  the 
public  press.  So  anxious  was  he  to  get  matter  into  the 
papers  that  one  of  Governor  Bernard's  spies  was  able 
to  tell  of  a  quarrel  between  Otis  and  Adams  over  the 
latter's  desire  to  rush  into  print. 

It  has  been  said  that  he  had  the  instinct  "  of  a  great 
journalist  willing  to  screen  his  individuality  behind  his 
journal."  We  have  heard  little  of  Samuel  Adams, 
journalist,  because  it  was  not  in  journalism  itself,  any 
more  than  it  was  in  literature  or  in  oratory,  that  he 


102  HISTORY  OF  JOURNALISM 

was  interested.  Journalism,  literature,  oratory,  for  him 
were  but  means  by  which  the  people  were  aroused.  His 
very  anonymity  made  him  a  power,  and  from  1755  to 
the  breaking  out  of  the  war,  though  he  was  the  most 
industrious,  the  most  effective  and  the  most  able  of  the 
men  writing  for  the  papers,  he  was  the  least  identified. 
He  seldom,  if  ever,  published  anything  under  his  own 
name,  but  carried  on,  sometimes  over  periods  of  several 
years,  controversies  under  different  noms  de  plume.  His 
biographer  gives  a  list  of  twenty-five  of  these  disguises 
that  he  assumed,  among  them :  "  An  American,"  "  A 
Tory,"  "A  Son  of  Liberty,"  ''An  Elector  in  1771," 
"  Candidus,"  ''  Determinatus,"  ''  Populus,"  "  Cedant 
Arma  Togae,"  "  Principiis  Obsta,"  "  A  Religious  Poli- 
tician," and  ''  Shippen."  ^ 

We  have  seen  in  the  previous  chapter  how  Adams  be- 
gan his  fight  for  liberty  by  the  formation  of  a  club  and, 
after  its  formation,  by  the  publication  of  the  Indepen- 
dent Advertiser.  He  was  then  a  young  man  of  twenty- 
six.  When  the  paper  failed,  because  of  business  diffi- 
culties, he  was  still  very  young  —  only  twenty-eight. 
Between  that  time  and  the  start  of  the  Boston  Gazette 
in  1755,  he  became  a  man  of  maturity,  a  statesman,  a 
ripened  combatant.  During  those  five  years  he  gathered 
about  him  the  men  who  were  to  be  famous  as  the  group 
that  defied  England,  brought  about  the  Revolutionary 
War  and  inaugurated  the  movement  that  led  to  Ameri- 
can independence. 

In  the  columns  of  the  Independent  Advertiser  was 
printed  the  sermon  of  Jonathan  May  hew,  in  which  the 
distinguished  Unitarian  set  forth  the  idea  that  these 
colonies  should  be  not  only  free  and  independent,  but 
should  become  a  republic.  Tliis  sermon  has  been  called 
^  Wells,  Life  of  Adams. 


THE  BOSTON  GAZETTE  AND  SAMUEL  ADAMS     103 

"  The  Morning  Gun  of  the  Revolution."  ^  Mayhew  died, 
but  in  the  two  years  that  the  Independent  Advertiser 
was  being  pubhshed,  Adams  had  opportunity  to  study 
and  gauge  the  men  in  the  community  who  might  be  drawn 
together  in  the  fight  which  he  had  undertaken.  John 
Adams  soon  became  closely  associated  with  him  in  the 
group,  which  numbered,  among  others,  such  men  as  James 
Otis,  Oxenbridge  Thatcher  and  Joseph  Warren. 

The  office  of  the  Boston  Gazette,  on  Court  Street,  was 
recognized  as  the  headquarters  of  the  Revolutionary 
leaders,  and  here  Warren,  Otis,  Quincy,  John  Adams, 
Church  and  others  less  known,  held  frequent  meetings. 
Here  they  watched  the  public  sentiment  of  the  country 
respond  to  their  publications,  read  the  exchanges,  went 
over  the  proofs  of  their  contributions,  in  fact  went 
through  what  to-day  would  be  considered  an  editorial 
council.  It  was  in  the  back  room  of  the  Gazette  office 
that  the  *'  Boston  Tea-Party  "  was  planned.  i 

It  was  said  that  the  ablest  and  most  interesting  of  all 
the  proteges  of  Samuel  Adams  was  Joseph  Warren. 
Warren  was  then  about  twenty-seven  years  of  age  and 
for  some  years  had  been  a  contributor  to  the  newspapers, 
thereby  attracting  to  himself  the  attention  and  respect 
of  Adams.  In  February,  1768,  he  vigorously  attacked 
Governor  Bernard  in  the  Gazette.  His  attack  ''  drew 
blood,"  for  Bernard  endeavored  to  have  the  legislature 
act  in  the  matter,  and,  upon  its  refusal,  prorogued  that 
body. 

James  Otis  was  the  counterpoise  for  the  impetuous 
Samuel  Adams.  He  was  the  scholar  and  the  cultivated 
writer.  In  1762  he  published  a  pamphlet,  *'  A  Vindica- 
tion of  the  Conduct  of  the  House  of  Representatives  of 
the  Province  of  the  Massachusetts  Bay."     John  Adams 

^Memorial  History  of  Boston,  iii,  119. 


104  HISTORY  OF  JOURNALISM 

later  said  that  it  contained  most  of  the  soHd  thought  of 
the  philosophic  writings  of  the  Revolution.  It  was 
Otis  who  aroused  John  Adams  with  his  speech  against 
the  Writs  of  Assistance  and  brought  him  into  the  news- 
paper circle,  and  he  was  the  one  patriot  whom  Governor 
Hutchinson  challenged  to  a  newspaper  duel,  grimly  in- 
forming Otis  that  he  had  "  been  cutting  out  work  for  him 
in  the  papers/'  ^ 

Another  brilliant  contributor  was  Josiah  Quincy,  Jr., 
who  was  admitted  to  the  Bar  in  1768.  When  the  British 
soldiers  made  their  appearance  in  Boston,  he  published  in 
the  Gazette  of  that  year,  under  the  signature  of  "  Hyper- 
ion,'* a  series  of  essays.  Joseph  Warren's  oration  on 
the  anniversary  of  the  Boston  Massacre  in  1772,  though 
he  defended  the  soldiers  against  the  popular  feeling, 
stirred  the  imagination  of  the  patriots;  printed  in  the 
Boston  Gazette  on  March  17,  1775,  it  was  copied  through- 
out the  colonies. 

The  part  played  by  his  kinsman,  John  Adams  of  Brain- 
tree,  is  second  only  to  that  of  Samuel  Adams  himself, 
though  the  "  Statesman  of  the  Revolution  "  had  not  the 
direct  hand  in  either  the  journalistic  or  the  political  di- 
visions that  the  Boston  Adams  had.  The  fire  that  burned 
in  the  mind  of  John  Adams  was  very  often  rekindled 
by  the  ardor  of  Sam  Adams.  It  was  the  literary  art 
that  fascinated  the  man  who  was  to  be  the  second 
President  of  the  United  States ;  it  was  the  idea,  the  cause, 
that  inspired  the  "  Father  of  the  Revolution."  John 
Adams'  more  conservative  soul  rebelled  at  the  excesses 
of  the  newspapers,  and  yet  there  is  a  great  tribute  to 
Messrs.  Edes  and  Gill  in  his  dissertation  on  the  Canon 
and  Feudal  Law,  which  was  printed  in  the  Boston 
Gazette  in  four  numbers,  and  which,  like  so  many  other 
s  Tudor,  Life  of  James  Otis,  102. 


THE  BOSTON  GAZETTE  AND  SAMUEL  ADAMS     105 

writings  of  the  day,  both  in  newspapers  and  pamphlets, 
was  an  endeavor  to  find  a  legal  basis  for  getting  rid  of  the 
tyranny  of  the  British  Government. 

In  1774  and  1775  John  Adams  wrote  the  "  Novanglus  " 
letters,  which  were  among  the  most  important  contri- 
butions to  the  Boston  Gazette.  They  were  answers  to 
letters  that  had  been  written  by  Daniel  Leonard  and 
printed  in  the  Massachusetts  Gazette, —  one  of  the  names 
of  the  Weekly  ^Advertiser.  Leonard's  letters  defended 
the  course  of  the  English  Government  and  tried  to  make 
it  appear  that  the  colonists  had  no  substantial  grievance. 
Adams  was  then  opening  the  congress  in  Philadelphia  and 
when  he  returned  and  found  that  these  letters,  which  were 
signed  *'  Massachusettsensis,"  were  making  a  deep  im- 
pression, he  began  his  series  of  letters  in  the  Gazette,  de- 
fending the  course  of  the  colonies  in  declaring  that 
America  would  defend  her  rights  and  that  submission 
was  not  to  be  thought  of.  ^ 

The  last  of  these  letters  appeared  with  the  date  of 
April  17,  1775.  Two  days  later,  April  19th,  the  battle 
of  Lexington  took  place,  and  the  newspaper  war  gave 
way  to  the  fight  of  arms.  These  letters  were  reprinted 
during  the  war  and  were  widely  read,  both  then  and 
afterward.  In  the  words  of  Charles  Francis  Adams, 
*'  they  formed  a  masterly  commentary  on  the  whole  his- 
tory of  American  taxation  and  the  rise  of  the  Revolu- 
tion.'^ 

When  we  come  to  discuss  Sam  Adams'  own  part,  it 
must  be  said  first,  that  never  before  in  the  history  of  a 
people  had  there  been  such  a  successful  endeavor  to  con- 
duct a  public  issue  within  peaceful  lines,  while,  at  the 
same  time,  nothing  was  omitted  that  would  arouse  the 
public  to  a  full  sense  of  the  importance  of  the  events  that 
were  taking  place.     English  historians,  even  in  this  cen- 


lo6  HISTORY  OF  JOURNALISM 

tury,  comment  with  amazement  on  the  fact  that  the  same 
pubHc  that  called  for  the  punishment  of  those  British 
soldiers  who  were  responsible  for  the  Boston  Massacre 
viewed  with  calmness  the  spectacle  of  the  defense  of 
these  same  "  murderers  "  by  John  Adams  and  Josiah 
Quincy ;  and  immediately  after  the  verdict  —  in  which 
all  but  two  were  acquitted  —  chose  John  Adams  for  their 
representative  in  the  Assembly.  For  this  condition  credit 
belongs  more  to  Sam  Adams  than  to  any  other  individual. 

He  showed  his  leadership  in  many  ways ;  not  the  least 
was  in  making  himself  very  popular  among  the  me- 
chanics and  laborers.  When  he  could  not  pour  forth  his 
convictions  at  a  town  meeting,  he  would  harangue  the 
ship  carpenters  working  on  a  block  of  wood  above  the 
tide,  or  debate  with  a  small  shopkeeper,  caught  in  a 
leisure  moment.  Nor  was  this  enough ;  the  day  done,  in 
a  study  adjoining  his  bedroom,  he  wrote  night  after 
night.  His  right  to  the  title  of  ''Father  of  the  Revo- 
lution "  rests  on  many  instances  of  his  initiative,  but 
principally  on  the  fact  that  he  drafted  the  first  public 
denial  of  the  right  of  the  British  Parliament  to  put  in 
operation  Grenville's  scheme  of  the  Stamp  Act,  and  that 
in  this  document  he  made  the  first  suggestion  of  the 
union  of  the  colonies  for  the  purpose  of  redressing  their 
grievances.  He  was  appointed,  in  May,  1769,  a  mem- 
ber of  the  Committee  to  instruct  the  Representatives  just 
elected  and  the  Committee  left  the  drafting  of  the  in- 
structions to  Adams  alone. 

It  was  in  the  following  September,  when  Adams  was 
again  appointed  to  prepare  instructions  —  these  instruc- 
tions taking  the  place  of  the  political  platform  of  to- 
day, that  he  collaborated  with  his  kinsman,  John  Adams, 
who  had  been  delegated  to  undertake  a  similar  task  for 
the  representatives  of  Braintree.     This  was  a  historic 


THE  BOSTON  GAZETTE  AND  SAMUEL  ADAMS     107 

collaboration,  an  important  event  in  the  history  of  the 
American  Revolution. 

The  Boston  Gazette  printed  these  documents  and  they 
went  through  all  the  towns  in  Massachusetts,  becoming 
the  platform  of  the  Province.  In  1772,  Sam  Adams  or- 
ganized the  Committee  of  Correspondence  in  more  than 
eighty  towns,  and  no  town  was  without  its  copy  of  the 
Gazette. 

Never  was  there  more  artful  journalism  than  that  in 
which  the  Boston  Massacre  was  used  to  inflame  the  public 
mind.  It  might  be  said  that  Adams  showed  himself  a 
consummate  reporter.  He  was  always  in  the  court,  and 
followed  the  trial  carefully,  consistently  taking  notes  and 
then  printing  over  the  signature  of  "  Vindex,"  his  own 
review  of  the  case.  He  was  a  believer  in  *'  shirt  sleeve 
diplomacy."  When  he  sent  Franklin  a  long  letter,  re- 
tailing the  grievances  of  the  colonies  against  the  govern- 
ment, he  printed  the  letter  in  the  Boston  Gazette. 

In  a  communication  to  the  Gazette  in  December,  1768, 
written  under  the  nom  de  plume  of  ''  Vindex,"  he  showed 
his  political  sagacity  when  he  pressed  home  on  an  English 
opponent  of  America  the  argument  that  if  the  colonists 
admitted  they  had  no  right  to  be  represented  when  taxed, 
they  were  admitting  that  they  were  slaves,  and  that  their 
property  was  not  actually  their  own.  However  faulty 
the  logic,  the  point  roused  the  colonists  and  was  the 
beginning  of  limitless  discussion. 

The  illegality  and  uselessness  of  billeting  troops  was 
a  theme  with  which  it  was  easy  to  stir  his  readers ;  and  it 
can  be  easily  imagined  what  the  effect  was  on  those  hardy 
New  Englanders,  resentful  to  the  core,  when  they  read 
his  appeal : 

'*  I  know  very  well  that  some  of  the  late  contenders 
for  a  right  in  the  British  Parliament  to  tax  Americans 


lo8  HISTORY  OF  JOURNALISM 

who  are  not,  and  cannot  be,  represented  there,  have 
denied  this.  When  pressed  with  that  fundamental  prin- 
ciple of  nature  and  the  constitution,  that  what  is  a  man's 
own  is  absolutely  his  own,  and  that  no  man  can  have  a 
right  to  take  it  from  him  without  his  consent,  they  have 
alleged,  and  would  fain  have  us  believe,  that  by  far  the 
greater  part  of  the  people  in  Britain  are  excluded  the 
right  of  choosing  their  representatives,  and  yet  are  taxed; 
and  that  therefore  they  are  taxed  without  their  consent. 
Had  not  this  doctrine  been  repeatedly  urged,  I  should 
have  thought  the  bare  mentioning  it  would  have  opened 
the  eyes  of  the  people  there  to  have  seen  where  their 
pretended  advocates  were  leading  them :  that  in  order  to 
establish  a  right  in  the  people  of  England  to  enslave  the 
colonists  under  the  plausible  show  of  great  zeal  for  the 
honor  of  the  nation,  they  are  driven  to  a  bold  assertion, 
at  all  adventures,  that  truly  the  greater  part  of  the  nation 
are  themselves  subject  to  the  same  yoke  of  bondage. 
What  else  is  it  but  saying  that  the  greater  part  of  the 
people  of  Britain  are  slaves?  For  if  the  fruit  of  all  their 
toil  and  industry  depends  upon  so  precarious  a  tenure  as 
the  will  of  a  few,  what  security  have  they  for  the  utmost 
farthing?  What  are  they  but  slaves,  delving  with  the 
sweat  of  their  brows,  not  for  the  benefit  of  themselves, 
but  their  masters?  After  all  the  fine  things  that  have 
been  said  of  the  British  Constitution  and  the  boasted 
freedom  and  happiness  of  the  subjects  who  live  under  it, 
will  they  thank  these  modern  writers,  these  zealous  as- 
serters  of  the  honor  of  the  nation,  for  reducing  them  to 
a  state  inferior  to  that  of  indented  servants,  who  gen- 
erally contract  for  a  maintenance,  at  least,  for  their 
labor?'' 4 

As  the  tragic  hour  approached,  his  appeal  became  more 
*  Boston  Gazette,  December  19,  1768. 


THE  BOSTON  GAZETTE  AND  SAMUEL  ADAMS     1 09 

ardent :  "  Is  it  not  enough/*  he  cried,  "  to  have  a  Gov- 
ernor an  avowed  advocate  for  ministerial  measures,  and 
a  most  assiduous  instrument  in  carrying  them  on, 
model'd,  shaped,  controul'd  and  directed,  totally  inde- 
pendent of  the  people  over  whom  he  is  commissioned 
to  govern,  and  yet  absolutely  dependent  upon  the 
Crown,  pension'd  by  those  on  whom  his  existence  de- 
pends, and  paid  out  of  a  revenue  established  by  those  who 
have  no  authority  to  establish  it,  and  extorted  from  the 
people  in  a  manner  most  odious,  insulting  and  oppres- 
sive? Is  not  this  indignity  enough  to  be  felt  by  those 
who  have  any   feeling?     Are  we  still  threatened  with 


more 


?  "  5 


At  length,  as  "  Observations  "  in  the  Boston  Gazette, 
September  27,  1773,  Samuel  Adams  wrote: 

''  This  very  important  dispute  between  Britain  and 
America  has,  for  a  long  time,  employed  the  pens  of 
statesmen  in  both  countries,  but  no  plan  of  union  is  yet 
agreed  on  between  them;  the  dispute  still  continues  and 
everything  floats  in  uncertainty.  As  I  have  long  con- 
plated  the  subject  with  fixed  attention,  I  beg  leave  to 
offer  a  proposal  to  my  countrymen,  namely,  that  a  CON- 
GRESS OF  AMERICAN  STATES  shall  be  assembled 
as  soon  as  possible,  draw  up  a  Bill  of  Rights,  and  publish 
it  to  the  world;  choose  an  ambassador  to  reside  at  the 
British  Court  to  act  for  the  United  colonists;  appoint 
where  the  congress  shall  annually  meet,  and  how  it  may 
be  summoned  upon  any  extraordinary  occasion,  what 
further  steps  are  necessary  to  be  taken,  etc."  ^ 

Three  weeks  later,  October  nth,  in  the  Gazette,  ap- 
peared the  following: 

**  But  the  question  will  be  asked  —  How  shall  the 

^Ihid,  October  2,  1772. 
«Hosmer,  Samuel  Adams,  238. 


no  HISTORY  OF  JOURNALISM 

colonies  force  their  Oppressors  to  proper  Terms?  This 
question  has  been  often  answered  already  by  our  Politi- 
cians, viz :  '  Form  an  Independent  State,'  '-An  American 
COMMONWEALTH.'  This  plan  has  been  proposed, 
and  I  can't  find  that  any  other  is  likely  to  answer  the  great 
Purpose  of  preserving  our  Liberties.  I  hope,  therefore, 
it  v^ill  be  well  digested  and  forwarded  to  be  in  due  Time 
put  into  Execution,  unless  our  Political  Fathers  can  se- 
cure American  Liberties  in  some  other  Way.  As  the 
Population,  Wealth  and  Power  of  this  Continent  are 
swiftly  increasing,  we  certainly  have  no  Cause  to  doubt 
of  our  Success  in  maintaining  Liberty  by  forming  a 
Commonwealth,  or  whatever  Measure  Wisdom  may  point 
out  for  the  preservation  of  the  Rights  of  America." 

John  Adams,  Thomas  Cushing,  Thomas  Paine  and 
Samuel  Adams  departed  for  Philadelphia,  and  Congress 
v^as  established;  when  it  adjourned,  October  26th,  a 
special  convention  was  appointed  for  May  20,  1775.  The 
battle  that  Adams  had  made  had  been  won,  to  a  very 
large  extent,  for  it  was  not  Adams  against  the  British 
Government;  it  was  not  Boston  against  the  British  Gov- 
ernment; it  v^as  not  even  New  England  against  the 
British  Government ;  it  was  the  united  colonies  of  America 
that  had  taken  up  the  war  begun  in  Boston,  practically  by 
a  single  individual. 

It  must  not  be  assumed  that  the  Boston  Gazette  was 
allowed  to  have  the  field  unattacked.  Governor  Hutchin- 
son was  keenly  sensitive  to  the  fact  that  seven-eighths  of 
the  people  of  Boston  —  the  calculation  is  his  own  —  read 
no  paper  but  the  Boston  Gazette,  and  for  that  reason 
the  Massachusetts  Gazette  (the  old  News-Letter)  was 
furnished  with  articles  and  built  up  in  every  way  possible 
that  it  might  hold  its  own  against  the  Boston  Gazette  and 
Adams.     The  Massachusetts   Gazette,   which   was   also 


THE  BOSTON  GAZETTE  AND  SAMUEL  ADAMS     HI 

known  as  Draper's  Gazette,  was  paid  liberally,  but  no 
matter  how  well  paid  the  contributors  were,  the  Tory 
papers  were  unable  to  obtain  a  large  circulation.  The 
two  most'  important  writers  were  Thomas  Hutchinson 
himself  and  Jonathan  Sewall,  the  Attorney-General  of 
Massachusetts,  the  latter  being  the  most  forceful  con- 
tributor to  the  Royalist  papers.  Hutchinson,  a  man  who 
undoubtedly  loved  his  country,  a  man  of  unquestioned 
ability,  was  almost  a  match  for  Adams.  He  drew  to 
him  also  Daniel  Leonard,  one  of  the  ablest  writers  of 
the  time. 

When  we  come  to  the  Boston  Gazette  itself,  it  is  well 
to  remember  that,  though  the  newspapers  were  small 
in  size  and  poorly  printed,  they  exerted  a  powerful  in- 
fluence ;  their  appeals  reached  practically  every  threshold, 
and  through  them  ''  the  sense  of  national  life  was  be- 
coming intense  and  vivid."  The  mind  of  America  at 
this  time  was  very  keen.  Montesquieu,  Priestley,  Bacon, 
Bolingbroke,  Milton,  Locke  and  Harrington  were  quoted 
and  known  almost  in  the  wilderness,  and  Edmund  Burke 
was  able  to  say  "  I  hear  that  they  have  sold  nearly  as 
many  of  Blackstone's  Commentaries  in  America  as  in 
England."  ^ 

History  must  ever  be  grateful  that  Benjamin  Edes 
and  John  Gill  were  bold  and  fearless  publishers.  The 
Stamp  Act  and  the  Boston  Massacre,  the  Tea  Tax  and 
the  closing  of  the  port  of  Boston,  the  conduct  of  the 
British  soldiers  and  many  oppressive  measures  against 
the  colonies  were  handled  in  this  paper  in  a  way  to  arouse 
the  indignation  of  the  colonists  and  to  make  patriots  of 
them.  The  Gazette  was  ''  a  great  power  in  the  com- 
munity. Rarely  in  our  history  has  a  single  newspaper 
met  a  difficult  crisis,  maintained  its  principles  with  more 

''House  of  Commons,  March  22,  1775. 


112  HISTORY  OF  JOURNALISM 

splendid  ability,  or  exercised  so  powerful  an  influence 
over  the  minds  of  men."  ^  Governor  Bernard  himself 
declared  it  the  most  "  factious  newspaper-"  in  America, 
while  the  copies  sent  abroad  gave  to  the  thoughtful  men 
of  Europe  the  first  insight  into  the  profound  character 
and  understanding  of  the  men  who  were  leading  the 
Revolutionary  movement.  But  no  greater  tribute  could 
be  paid  than  that  of  John  Adams,  printed  in  the  paper 
and  addressed  to  Edes  and  Gill : 

"  But  none  of  the  means  of  information  are  more 
sacred,  or  have  been  cherished  with  more  tenderness  and 
care  by  the  settlers  of  America  than  the  press,"  he  said. 
"  Care  should  be  taken  that  the  art  of  printing  should  be 
encouraged,  and  that  it  should  be  easy  and  cheap  and 
safe  for  any  person  to  communicate  his  thoughts  to  the 
public.  And  you.  Messieurs  printers,  whatever  the 
tyrants  of  the  earth  may  say  of  your  paper,  have  done 
important  service  to  your  country  by  your  readiness  and 
freedom  in  publishing  the  speculations  of  the  curious. 
The  stale,  impudent  insinuations  of  slander  and  sedition, 
with  which  the  gormandizers  of  power  have  endeavored 
to  discredit  your  paper,  are  so  much  the  more  to  your 
honor.  .  .  .  And  if  the  public  interest,  liberty,  and 
happiness  have  been  in  danger  from  the  ambition  or 
avarice  of  any  great  man,  whatever  might  be  his  polite- 
ness, address,  learning,  ingenuity,  and,  in  other  respects, 
integrity  and  humanity,  you  have  done  yourselves  honor 
and  your  country  service  by  publishing  and  pointing  out 
that  avarice  and  ambition.  ...  Be  not  intimidated, 
therefore,  by  any  terrors,  from  publishing  with  the 
utmost  freedom,  whatever  can  be  warranted  by  the  laws 
of  your  country ;  nor  suffer  yourselves  to  be  wheedled  out 
of  your  liberty  by  any  pretences  of  politeness,  delicacy, 
8  Memorial  History  of  Boston,  iii,  134. 


THE  BOSTON  GAZETTE  AND  SAMUEL  ADAMS     113 

or  decency.  These,  as  they  are  often  used,  are  but  three 
different  names  for  hypocrisy,  chicanery  and  cowardice. 
Much  less,  I  presume,  will  you  be  discouraged  by  any 
pretenses  'that  malignants  on  this  side  the  water  will 
represent  your  paper  as  factious  and  seditious,  or  that 
the  great  on  the  other  side  the  water  will  take  offense 
at  them.  ...  I  must  and  will  repeat  it,  your  paper  de- 
serves the  patronage  of  every  friend  to  his  country.  And 
w^hether  the  defamers  of  it  are  array-ed  in  robes  of  scar- 
let or  sable,  whether  they  lurk  and  skulk  in  an  insurance 
office,  whether  they  assume  the  venerable  character  of  a 
priest,  the  sly  one  of  a  scrivener,  or  the  dirty,  infamous, 
abandoned  one  of  an  informer,  they  are  all  the  creatures 
and  tools  of  the  lust  of  domination."  ^ 

These  are  noble  words  indeed,  and  as  we  go  on  with 
our  story,  they  will  be  worth  recalling,  when  we  come 
to  realize  that  they  were  used  by  the  same  man  who 
later  on,  when  President  of  the  United  States,  was  the 
supporter  of  the  Alien  and  Sedition  Acts,  the  failure  of 
which  was  necessary  in  order  to  put  an  end  to  the  en- 
deavor in  this  country  to  shackle  the  press. 

Of  all  the  patriots,  it  was  Sam  Adams  whose  head 
the  British  Government  most  desired.  Edes  and  Gill, 
too,  were  openly  threatened,  as  was  Isaiah  Thomas,  the 
publisher  of  the  Massachusetts  Spy,  referred  to  in  a 
previous  chapter.  The  decision  to  move  on  the  stores  at 
Lexington  and  to  put  an  end  to  the  military  training 
was,  to  every  patriot,  the  call  to  arms.  At  the  same  time 
that  the  Massachusetts  Spy  suspended  and  started  mov- 
ing its  types  and  press  to  Worcester,  Edes  quietly  moved 
an  old  press  and  one  or  two  improved  fonts  of  type  to 
Watertown,  and  there  the  paper  was  printed  until  the 
evacuation  of  Boston  by  the  British,  when  he  returned 

^Life  and  Works  of  John  Adams,  iii,  457,  458. 


114  HISTORY  OF  JOURNALISM 

in  November,  1776.  The  partnership  seems  to  have  been 
dissolved  when  Edes  decided  to  move  the  paper  to  Water- 
town  and  Gill  remained  in  Boston.  ^^ 

When  Edes  returned  and  resumed  publication,  he  took 
into  partnership  his  two  sons,  Benjamin  and  Peter,  until 
1784,  when  Peter  retired  from  the  scene  and  in  1795 
started  the  Kennebec,  Maine,  Intelligencer.  The  Ga- 
zette was  continued  until  1798  by  the  old  man  himself, 
his  sons  having  left  him.  The  year  before  it  was  dis- 
continued, in  the  issue  of  January  i,  1797,  he  began  his 
salutation  with  the  statement  that  **  The  aged  editor  of  the 
Gazette  presents  the  compliments  of  the  season  to  his 
generous  benefactors,  and  invites  all  those  who  have  any 
demands  on  him  to  call  and  receive  their  dues;"  this 
gentle  introduction  leads  into  the  main  purpose  of  the 
salutation,  which  is  to  ask  the  many  who  owe  him  money, 
especially  those  who  are  two,  three  or  more  years  in 
debt,  to  discharge  their  arrears,  ''  as  the  editor  has  found 
it  impossible  to  live  upon  the  wind  and  promises  equally 
uncertain." 

He  recalls  the  time  when  the  Gazette  was  a  power; 
when  its  circulation  was  "  upward  of  2,000."  He  now 
states  that  he  has  only  a  circulation  of  400  and  hardly 
any  advertisements. 

The  following  September,  the  paper,  at  the  close 
of  its  forty-third  year,  went  out  of  existence.  In  his 
valedictory,  the  old  editor  states  sorrowfully:  "The 
cause  of  liberty  is  not  always  the  channel  of  prefer- 
ment for  pecuniary  reward."  He  recalls  the  fact  that 
Adams,  Hancock  and  Otis  were  his  chosen  intimates 
in  the  days  when  the  country  was  in  danger;  and 
advises  his  countrymen  to  cherish  their  liberties 
and  maintain  their  virtues.  He  bids  them  farewell. 
^^  Nelson,  i,  267. 


THE  BOSTON  GAZETTE  AND  SAMUEL  ADAMS      I  IS 

"  It   is    benearh   a   patriot   to   mourn  his   own   misfor- 
tunes." ^^ 

A  visitor  found  him  in  1801,  in  a  house  on  Temple 
Street,  Boston,  "  with  spectacles  on  nose,  a  venerable  old 
man,  bent  over  the  case,  setting  type  for  shop  bills,  while 
an  elderly  female,  his  daughter,  beat  and  pulled  at  the 
press,"  the  last  picture  of  the  pioneers  of  American 
Liberty.  Two  years  later,  neglected,  forgotten,  weighed 
down  with  poverty,  he  died. 

11  Buckingham^  i,  205. 


CHAPTER  IX 

JOURNALISM  AND  THE  REVOLUTION 

False  impression  of  strength  of  Continental  Army  —  Tories 
outnumber  Patriots  —  Number  of  papers  in  colonies  —  Lieu- 
tenant-Governor Colden  and  Hugh  Gaine  —  Attitude  of 
British  toward  journalism  —  Samuel  Loudon  —  His  publica- 
tion closely  watched  —  Rivington's  Gazette  boycotted  —  Sears 
and  McDougall  wreck  office  —  Encounter  with  Ethan  Allen  — 
Double-dealing  of  Gaine's  New  York  Gazette  —  New  Jersey 
Gazette  assists  Patriot  cause  —  Tory  papers  picture  misfor- 
tune of  Americans  —  Change  in  attitude  of  people  toward 
press  —  Encouragement  of  writers. 

In  the  minds  of  most  Americans,  this  country  was, 
during  the  Revolution,  a  great  battlefield  on  which  for 
seven  years  there  was  continuous  clash  of  arms.  As  a 
matter  of  fact,  of  the  three  million  people  in  the  country, 
at  no  time  were  more  than  a  small  part  engaged  in  the 
war.  During  the  campaign  of  1777,  Washington's  army 
never  exceeded  1 1 ,000  men.  ^ 

In  the  spring  of  1777,  when  the  Continental  Congress 
was  enjoying  its  greatest  authority  and  when,  through 
the  generosity  of  France,  the  financial  condition  of  the 
temporary  government  was  at  its  best,  so  that  it  was 
able  to  make  liberal  offers  of  bounties,  only  34,820  were 
obtained,  despite  an  earnest  appeal  for  80,000,  less  than 
one-fifth  of  the  male  population.  ^  The  total  number 
of  men  in  the  field  for  the  year,  including  militia,  was 
68,720.  In  1 78 1  the  total  number  of  men  in  the  field  was 
only  29,340,  despite  the  great  military  action. 

1  Fiske,  American  Revolution,  ii,  2y. 

2  Fiske,  Critical  Period,  102. 

116 


JOURNALISM  AND  THE  REVOLUTION         II7 

Although  what  has  been  called  the  war  of  argument 
ended  with  the  battle  of  Lexington  on  April  19,  1775,  and 
that  date,  as  Professor  Tyler  says,  becomes  the  divi- 
sional pofnt  in  any  history  of  America  or  American  de- 
velopment, it  is,  nevertheless,  not  true  that  the  journalism 
of  the  colonies  stopped  in  its  development  or  its  im- 
portance. The  picture  of  an  entire  country  engaged  in 
battle  for  seven  years  is  a  companion  piece  to  another 
equally  false ;  that  of  an  entire  country  fighting  the  British 
troops  and  their  paid  support.  The  truth  is  that  the  dif- 
ficulty of  holding  the  patriots  themselves  in  line  was  the 
principal  cause  of  the  prolongation  of  the  war. 

The  Tories  asserted  that  they  were  numerically  su- 
perior to  the  patriots.  Lecky  declares  that  the  Ameri- 
can Revolution  was  "  the  work  of  an  energetic  minority, 
who  succeeded  in  committing  an  undecided  and  fluctuat- 
ing majority  to  courses  for  which  they  had  little  love, 
and  led  them  step  by  step  to  a  position  from  which  it  was 
impossible  to  recede."  ^ 

The  greatest  number  of  Tories  was  found  in  New 
York,  while  in  South  Carolina  and  Georgia  they  out- 
numbered the  patriots.  John  Adams,  in  a  letter  written 
in  1 81 3,  declared  that  New  York  and  Pennsylvania  were 
evenly  divided,  and  that  only  Virginia  and  New  England 
kept  them  in  line.  He  also  stated  that  fully  one-third  of 
the  people  were  averse  to  the  Revolution  ^  and,  in  gen- 
eral, to  the  idea  of  rebellion  and  separation.  Until  the 
opening  of  hostilities,  it  was  a  war  of  argument,  but  it 
became  necessary  to  keep  up  the  argument  by  propaganda 
and  printing  after  hostilities  had  begun.  Such  action 
was  necessary  in  order  to  hold  those  who  were  already 
in  sympathy  with  the  American  cause,  to  increase  the 

3  Lecky,  History  of  England,  iii,  443.  \ 

*  Works  of  John  Adams,  x,  63. 


Ii8  HISTORY  OF  JOURNALISM 

number  of  patriots  where  it  was  possible,  and  to  attack 
those  who  were  circulating  falsehoods  intended  to  weaken 
the  patriotic  ranks. 

In  addition  to  the  Tories,  who  openly  supported  the 
enemy,  there  were  many  worthy  people  who  believed 
that  the  patriots  were  **  going  too  far,"  as  well  as  a 
number  who,  as  Fiske  says,  magnified  the  losses  and 
depreciated  the  gains.  ^  In  New  York  and  Pennsylvania 
there  was  a  large  non-English  population,  both  men  and 
women,  who  had  come  from  the  continent  of  Europe, 
and  in  them  "  the  pulse  of  Liberty  did  not  beat  so  quickly  " 
as  in  the  English  commonwealths  of  Virginia  and 
Massachusetts.  The  Quakers  of  Pennsylvania  and  New 
Jersey  were  opposed  to  war,  and  in  New  York  City,  which 
had  been  the  headquarters  of  the  British  army  and  the 
seat  of  the  principal  royal  government  in  America,  there 
was  a  strong  royalist  feeling. 

If,  as  Lecky  says,  the  revolution  was  the  work  of  a 
minority,  and  the  army  itself  was  so  small  a  part  of  the 
population,  it  is  quite  evident  that  the  propagandist  part 
played  by  the  forces  that  converted  that  minority  into  a 
majority,  a  part  greatly  undervalued  by  most  of  our 
historians,  was  not  inconsiderable. 

At  the  close  of  the  year  1774,  there  were  thirty-one 
newspapers  printed  in  English  in  the  colonies,  of  which 
twenty-one  were  Whig.  To  these  thirty-one,  between 
that  time  and  April,  1775,  were  added  three  more,  one 
of  which  was  devoted  to  the  patriotic  cause,  but  no  less 
than  five  went  over  to  the  Tory  side  during  the  course 
of  the  war. 

Until  the  beginning  of  actual  hostilities  newspapers 
were  maintained  in  the  principal  cities;  the  activities  of 
the  enemy,  however,  necessitated  the  removal  of  several 

•  Fiske,  American  Revolution,  i,  56. 


JOURNALISM  AND  THE  REVOLUTION         1 19 

of  them  to  more  remote  places  and  interrupted  or  en- 
tirely stopped  the  publication  of  others. 

The  papers  at  that  time  were  not  by  any  means  evenly 
distributed;  for  instance,  Maryland,  Virginia,  the  two 
Carolinas  and  Georgia,  together  could  boast  of  but  one 
more  journal  than  Pennsylvania,  and  only  three  more 
than  little  Massachusetts.  New  Hampshire  had  only  the 
Gazette,  while  in  Rhode  Island  there  were  both  a  Gazette 
and  a  Mercury.  ^ 

Early  in  the  war  the  British  General,  Gage,  recognized 
the  necessity  of  putting  before  the  public  the  encouraging 
aspect  of  the  British  cause.  Immediately  after  the  battles 
of  Lexington  and  Concord,  he  sent  to  Cadwallader  Col- 
den,  Lieutenant-Governor  of  New  York,  his  own  account 
of  these  engagements,  requesting  him  to  have  them 
printed  in  some  New  York  paper.  Colden's  experience 
is  best  told  in  his  own  language : 

"  Immediately  upon  the  receipt  of  your  first  account  of 
the  facts  of  the  19th  of  April,  I  sent  it  to  Gaine  to  be 
published  in  his  paper.  He  desired  leave,  if  asked,  to  say 
from  whom  he  got  it.  I  sent  my  son  to  tell  him  he  might, 
and  if  he  chose,  might  add  that  I  received  it  from  head- 
quarters, w^hich  entirely  satisfied  him,  and  he  promised 
to  publish  it  on  Monday.  This  was  on  Saturday  even- 
ing. On  Sunday  he  returned  the  copy  and  let  me  know 
that  he  could  not  insert  it  in  his  paper." 

When  the  British  took  possession  of  New  York  the 
Whig  printers,  including  Gaine,  had  to  leave  and  there 
was  no  newspaper  published.  General  How^e  saw  the 
necessity  of  keeping  the  citizens  informed  and  of  putting 
the  best  face  on  the  British  cause,  and  authorized  Ambrose 
Serle  to  issue  a  new^spaper  and  to  use  Gaine's  establish- 
ment for  that  purpose.     The  issue  of  September  30th  of 

«  Lorenzo  Sabine,  The  American  Loyalists,  53. 


120  HISTORY  OF  JOURNALISM 

the  New  York  Gazette  came  out  bearing  Gaine's  name, 
but  in  the  issue  of  October  7th  and  those  following  his 
name  was  dropped.  Serle,  in  his  report  to  Lord  Dart- 
mouth, tells  of  acting  as  superintendent  to  the  New  York 
Gazette  and  gives  an  interesting  view  of  the  governmen- 
tal attitude  toward  journalism : 

"  Among  other  Engines  which  have  raised  the  present 
commotion,  next  to  the  indecent  harangues  of  the 
preachers,  none  has  had  a  more  extensive  or  stronger  in- 
fluence than  the  newspapers  of  the  respective  colonies. 
One  is  astonished  to  see  with  what  avidity  they  are  sought 
after,  and  how  implicitly  they  are  believed,  by  the  great 
bulk  of  the  people. 

"  The  Congress  saw  the  necessity  of  securing  this  ad- 
vantage entirely  to  themselves  and  of  preventing  all  pub- 
lications which  might  either  expose  or  refute  the  policy 
of  their  measures.  A  free  press,  however,  teeming  with 
heterogeneous  matters,  would  have  at  least  retarded  their 
great  design. 

^'Government  may  find  it  expedient  in  the  sum  of 
things  to  employ  this  popular  engine;  and,  if  it  be  im- 
possible to  restrain  the  publication  of  falsehood,  it  will  be 
its  interest  to  give  power  and  facility  to  the  circulation  of 
truth.  The  expense  of  allowing  salary  (if  needful)  to 
some  able  superintendents  of  the  press  in  different 
colonies,  who  should  in  policy  be  natives  of  this  country, 
would  be  too  trifling  to  mention,  considering  the  almost 
incredible  influence  those  fugitive  publications  have  upon 
the  people.  Ever  since  the  press  here  has  been  under 
my  direction  (from  the  30th  of  September)  I  have  seen 
sufficient  reason  to  confirm  this  opinion  and  have  had 
the  pleasure  to  hear  that  the  papers,  which  have  been 
circulated  as  extensively  as  possible,  have  been  attended 
with  the  most  promising  effects.     The  advantage  to  the 


JOURNALISM  AND  THE  REVOLUTION         121 

printer,  upon  a  moderate  computation  in  the  present  state, 
will  amount  to  seven  or  eight  hundred  pounds  a  year, 
Sterling,  clear  of  all  deductions.  I  mention  this  to  show 
how  great  the  demand  is  and  consequently  how  prudent  it 
may  be  for  the  government  to  take  care  with  what  matter 
it  is  supplied. 

"  I  beg  leave  to  refer  Your  Lordship  to  the  inclosed 
newspapers  for  an  account  of  general  occurrances. 
Nothing,  to  the  best  of  my  knowledge,  is  inserted  in  them, 
as  New  York  intelligence,  but  matters  of  fact  as  they 
have  arisen.  This  little  business  affords  me  some  amuse- 
ment, where  I  have  no  books  and  few  friends,  and  en- 
gages a  part  of  my  time  with  the  satisfaction  I  am  other- 
wise deprived  of,  of  doing  some  service  to  the  cause  of 
my  King  and  country."  "^ 

Thomas  Jones,  the  Loyalist  historian,  affords  us  fur- 
ther enlightenment  concerning  the  frame  of  mind  of  the 
^Dpposition  as  to  the  attacks  made  on  them  by  the  pa- 
triots. It  was  in  the  office  of  Samuel  Loudon  —  who 
afterward  (January  17,  1776,)  established  the  New 
York  Packet,  later  being  obliged  to  move  it  to  Fishkill 
while  the  British  occupied  New  York  —  that  a  reply  was 
to  be  printed  to  Thomas  Paine's  "  Common  Sense." 
Loudon  unquestionably  was  a  Whig,  but  according  to 
the  account  of  Jones,  Alexander  McDougall,  Isaac  Sears 
and  other  *'  inveterate  republicans "  having  one  night 
imbibed  plentifully  of  "  rumbo  "  (the  strong  man's  drink 
of  the  day)  went  to  the  house  of  Loudon  and  pulled  him 
out  of  bed.  Disregarding  the  fact  that  he  was  both  **  a 
Presbyterian  and  a  Republican,"  they  took  the  manuscript 
away  from  him  and  destroyed  all  the  copies  that  he  had 
printed.  It  is  doubtful  if  this  "  Presbyterian  and  Re- 
publican "  printer  was  much  alarmed  over  the  visit,  as 
7  Stevens,  Facsimiles,  Nos.  2044-2046. 


122  HISTORY  OF  JOURNALISM 

his  actions  indicated  that  he  was  much  in  sympathy  with 
the  ''  Sons  of  Liberty." 

This  occurred  in  the  summer  of  1775.  The  day  fol- 
lowing the  visit  to  London,  printers  of  the  city  were  noti- 
fied that  they  must  cease  to  print  articles  in  favor  of  our 
"  inveterate  foes,  the  King,  Ministry  and  Parliament  of 
Great  Britain." 

Loudon  appealed  to  the  Committee  of  Safety  to  rec- 
ompense him  for  the  loss  sustained,  and  was  appointed 
official  printer  with  a  salary  of  £200  a  year,  to  print  a 
weekly  newspaper,  in  which  there  was  to  be  such  infor- 
mation as  a  future  legislature  should  direct.  This  was 
the  New  York  Packet  above  referred  to.  Doubtless  it 
was  a  matter  of  some  satisfaction  to  both  Loudon  and 
the  patriots  that  they  had,  in  destroying  Tory  literature, 
forced  the  royalists  to  assist  in  establishing  a  patriot 
paper. 

How  closely  the  provisional  government  watched  over 
publication  is  shown  in  the  action  of  the  Committee  of 
Safety,  which  on  December  21,  1777,  ordered  Loudon  to 
appear  before  them  and  explain  why  he  had  reprinted  in 
his  paper  extracts  from  Gaine's  New  York  Gazette, 
which  contained  news  discouraging  to  the  patriot  cause. 
The  following  day  Loudon  did  appear  and  explained  that 
he  only  printed  the  extract  to  show  his  readers  the  kind 
of  stuff  that  was  being  published  in  New  York. 

The  Chairman  of  the  Committee,  on  Loudon's  apology, 
pardoned  the  offense,  declaring  that  while  the  House  of 
Representatives  of  New  York  had  no  intention  of  restrict- 
ing the  liberty  of  the  press,  they  were  determined  "  not 
to  employ  any  person  who  shall  do  things  inimical  to  the 
cause  of  American  freedom."  ^ 

But  it  is  when  Jones  comes  to  tell  of  the  attack  by 
*  Journal  of  the  New  York  Provisional  Congress,  i,  78I. 


JOURNALISM  AND  THE  REVOLUTION         123 

Sears  on  James  Rivington's  New  York  Gazetteer  that  he 
is  unable  to  contain  himself  over  the  wickedness,  unjust- 
ness  and  villainy  of  the  patriots. 

Rivington  was  a  favorite  with  the  Loyalists.  He  had 
come  to  the  colonies  after  a  stormy  career  in  Lon- 
don, where  he  had  been  a  bookseller — fond  of  horse- 
racing  and  good  living  —  with  all  the  proclivities  of  a 
Royalist.  His  Gazetteer  first  appeared  April  22,  1773, 
and  was  patronized  by  the  royal  supporters  in  all  the 
principal  towns.  He  boasted  on  one  occasion  that  its 
circulation  was  3,600  —  a  circulation  quite  as  large  as 
that  of  any  paper,  not  only  in  the  colonies,  but  even  in 
Great  Britain.^ 

Rivington's  success,  as  well  as  his  virulent  pen,  had 
made  him  a  thorn  in  the  side  of  the  Whigs.  His  paper 
became  known  during  the  war  as  the  ''  Lying  Gazette," 
and  even  the  royalists  commented  on  his  disregard  for 
the  truth.  In  fact  he  himself  warned  contributors  to  be 
more  truthful.  ^^ 

So  bitterly  were  the  Whigs  opposed  to  Rivington  that 
members  of  the  party  passed  resolutions  March  i,  1775, 
recommending  "  to  every  person  who  takes  his  paper,  to 
immediately  drop  the  same."  A  similar  resolution  was 
passed  in  Freehold,  New  Jersey,  on  the  sixth  day  of 
March.  On  the  8th  a  committee,  consisting  of  Philip 
Livingston  and  John  Jay,  called  on  him  to  ascertain  the 
authority  for  all  his  false  statements;  and  on  the  14th, 
at  a  meeting  of  the  Freeholders  of  Ulster  County,  New 
York,  a  resolution  was  passed  to  have  "  no  connection 
or  intercourse  with  him."  His  case  was  examined  by  the 
Provincial  Congress  and  referred  by  them  to  the  Con- 
tinental Congress,  then  in  Philadelphia,  to  whom  he  ad- 

^  Rivington's  New  York  Gazetteer,  October  13,  1774,  No.  78. 
10  July  10,  1782. 


124  HISTORY  OF  JOURNALISM 

dressed  his  defense,  declaring  that  "  his  press  had  always 
been  open  and  free  to  all  parties." 

He  stated  that,  while  an  Englishman  by^irth,  he  was 
an  American  by  choice,  and  that  it  was  his  wish  and 
ambition  to  be  a  useful  member  of  society.  He  also 
stated  that  he  employed  sixteen  people,  costing  him 
nearly  £i,ooo  annually.  This  reply  was  dated  May  20, 
1775.  On  the  7th  of  June  the  Provincial  Congress 
granted  him  permission  to  return  to  his  house,  and  recom- 
mended to  the  inhabitants  of  the  colony  that  he  be  un- 
molested, as  he  had  apologized  for  his  previous  remarks 
and  attitude. 

Washington,  on  June  5th,  1775,  passed  through  New 
York  on  his  way  from  Mount  Vernon  to  Cambridge ; 
following  this  visit,  New  York  was  ordered  by  the  Con- 
tinental Congress  to  raise  her  quota  of  3,000  men.  The 
city  presented  the  curious  spectacle  of  being  the  seat  of 
two  governments,  each  denouncing  the  other  as  illegal. 
On  August  23rd  Captain  Lamb  and  a  party  of  "  Liberty 
Boys  "  removed  the  twenty-one  guns  at  the  Battery,  dur- 
ing which  operation  shots  were  exchanged.  The  royal 
Governor,  Tryon,  fled  aboard  the  frigate  "  Asia,"  but 
continued  to  direct  violent  attacks  on  the  Sons  of  Liberty 
through  Rivington's  Gazetteer,  which  now  became  the 
representative  of  the  royalists. 

Among  the  men  whom  Rivington  had  sharply  attacked 
was  Isaac  Sears, —  conspicuous  for  his  zeal  in  the  earlier 
patriotic  movements, —  who  had  recently  moved  to  New 
Haven  and  there  raised  a  company  of  cavalry.  Riving- 
ton having  become  bolder  and  bolder,  Sears  took  it  upon 
himself  to  put  an  end  to  his  activities.  Arranging  with 
McDougall  and  other  patriots  the  details  of  the  raid,  he 
rode  into  the  city  with  his  men  and,  armed  to  the  teeth, 
entered   Rivington's   house,   demolishing   his   plant   and 


JOURNALISM  AND  THE  REVOLUTION         125 

carrying  off  the  types,  which  were  converted  into  bullets. 
The  loyalists  indignantly  condemned  the  act  as  evidence 
that  the  patriots  were  trying  ''  to  restrain  the  freedom  of 
the  press."  ^^ 

Rivington  used  this  ill-treatment  as  a  means  of  court- 
ing British  favor.  He  went  to  England  to  procure  a 
new  press,  and  succeeded  in  securing  appointment  as 
King's  printer  for  New  York.  When  the  British  recap- 
tured the  city  he  returned  and,  beginning  with  October  4, 
1777,  issued  his  paper  anew.  He  was  received  as  a 
martyr,  welcomed  with  congratulatory  verses  and  with  a 
public  dinner,  and  from  that  time  on  the  Royal  Gazette, 
as  he  now  called  his  paper,  told  not  only  the  bitter  truth 
about  the  Revolutionists  but  as  much  more  as  imagina- 
tion could  conceive  and  Rivington  and  his  "  lying  staff  " 
could  invent. 

That  he  was  determined  to  recoup  his  fortunes  is  shown 
by  the  advertisement  that  he  carried  for  several  weeks 
after  he  had  once  more  established  his  paper. 

"  James  Rivington,"  he  announces,  "  has  brought  back 
from  London  an  extra  fine  assortment  of  London  snuffs, 
shoes,  gentleman's  silk  stockings,  fishing  tackle,  magni- 
fiers, buckles,  small-swords,  toothpick  cases,  pen  knives, 
nail  scissors,  sleeve  buttons,  etc."  ^^ 

Rivington  was  a  man  of  unquestioned  ability.  As  one 
who  espoused  and  defended  the  Royalist  cause,  he  adopted 
the  royalist  costume  and  dressed  in  the  extreme  of  fashion 
—  curled  and  powdered  hair,  claret-colored  coat,  scarlet 
waistcoat  trimmed  with  gold  lace,  buckskin  breeches  and 
top-boots  —  and  he  was  very  fastidious  as  to  the  society 
he  kept  and  the  wine  he  drank.  His  contempt  for  the 
revolutionists  is  shown  in  his  own  story  of  his  treatment 

11  Lamb  and  Harrison,  History  of  New  York  City,  ii,  49. 

12  ^^^  York  Royal  Gazette,  November  i,  1777. 


126  HISTORY  OF  JOURNALISM 

of  Ethan  Allen,  the  truth  of  which  is  not  established  in 
any  of  the  biographies  of  Allen: 

"  I  was  sitting,"  said  Rivington,  "  after  a  good  dinner, 
alone,  with  my  bottle  of  Madeira  before  me,  when  I 
heard  an  unusual  noise  in  the  street,  and  a  huzza  from 
the  boys.  I  was  in  the  second  story,  and,  stepping  to  the 
window,  saw  a  tall  figure  in  tarnished  regimentals,  with 
a  large  cocked  hat  and  an  enormous  long  sword,  followed 
by  a  crowd  of  boys,  who  occasionally  cheered  him  with 
huzzas,  of  which  he  seemed  insensible.  He  came  up  to 
my  door  and  stopped.  I  could  see  no  more.  My  heart 
told  me  it  was  Ethan  Allen.  I  shut  down  my  window 
and  retired  behind  my  table  and  bottle.  I  was  certain 
the  hour  of  reckoning  had  come.  There  was  no  retreat. 
Mr.  Staples,  my  clerk,  came  in  paler  than  ever,  and  clasp- 
ing his  hands,  said: 

"  '  Master,  he  is  come/ 

'' '  I  know  it.' 

*'  ^  He  entered  the  store  and  asked  if  James  Rivington 
lived  there.' 

'' '  I  answered,  ''  Yes,  sir."  "  Is  he  at  home?  "  ''  I 
will  go  and  see,  sir,"  I  said;  and  now,  master,  what  is  to 
be  done?  There  he  is  in  the  store  and  the  boys  peeping 
in  at  him  from  the  street.' 

"  I  had  made  up  my  mind.  I  looked  at  the  bottle  of 
Madeira  —  possibly  took  a  glass. 

*'  *  Show  him  up,'  said  I,  '  and  if  such  Madeira  cannot 
mollify  him,  he  must  be  harder  than  adamant.' 

*'  There  was  a  fearful  moment  of  suspense.  I  heard 
him  on  the  stairs,  his  long  sword  clanking  at  every  step. 
In  he  walked. 

"  '  Is  your  name  James  Rivington?  ' 

**  *  It  is,  sir,  and  no  man  could  be  more  happy  than 
I  am  to  see  Colonel  Ethan  Allen.' 


JOURNALISM  AND  THE  REVOLUTION         127 

"  '  Sir,  I  have  come  — ' 

"  '  Not  another  word,  my  dear  colonel,  until  you  have 
taken  a  seat  and  a  glass  of  old  Madeira.' 

"  '  But,' sir,  I  don't  think  it  proper  — ' 

"  '  Not  another  word,  colonel.  Taste  this  wine ;  I  have 
had  it  in  glass  for  ten  years.  Old  wine,  you  know,  un- 
less it  is  originally  sound,  never  improves  by  age.' 

"  He  took  a  glass,  swallowed  the  wine,  smacked  his 
lips  and  shook  his  head  approvingly. 

"  *  Sir,  I  come  — ' 

*' '  Not  another  word  until  you  have  taken  another 
glass,  and  then,  my  dear  colonel,  we  will  talk  of  old  af- 
fairs and  I  have  some  droll  events  to  detail.' 

"  In  short,  we  finished  two  bottles  of  Madeira,  and 
parted  as  good  friends  as  if  we  never  had  cause  to  be 
otherwise."  ^^ 

//During  the  time  that  Rivington  was  in  Europe  arrang- 
ing for  a  new  outfit,  the  British  side  of  the  controversy 
was  set  forth  by  Hugh  Gaine,  once  a  patriotic  editor,  but 
later  —  for  business  reasons  —  an  enthusiastic  Royalists 
Gaine's  double-dealing  had  been  noted  for  some  time,  but 
it  remained  for  the  war  to  develop  his  talents  to  their 
full.  When  the  British  took  possession  of  the  city  he 
fled  to  Newark,  New  Jersey,  and  apparently  edited  his 
patriotic  paper  there.  His  paper  in  New  York  was  con- 
tinued by  the  British.  The  only  known  file  of  the  Newark 
issue  shows  Mr.  Gaine  running  along  very  smoothly  until 
his  issue  of  November  2,  1776,  when  he  apparently  suf- 
fered what  the  modern  alienists  would  describe  as  "  brain- 
storm "  for  he  takes  both  sides  in  the  same  issue,  an  article 
in  one  column  referring  to  the  ease  with  which  ''  our 
troops  "  beat  the  ''  Britishers,"  while  in  an  adjoining 
column,  he  recounted  the  skill  with  which  '*  our  "  troops 
13  Lossing,  Field-hook  of  the  Revolution,  i,  508. 


128  HISTORY  OF  JOURNALISM 

had  trounced  the  "  rebels."  Apparently  this  was  too 
much  for  the  patriots  and  there  ended  Mr.  Gaine's  double 
venture,  and  from  that  time  he  devoted  his  talents  entirely 
to  the  British  cause  and  his  New  York  paper.  ^* 

When  the  war  ended  Gaines,  unabashed,  petitioned  the 
Legislature  to  be  allowed  to  remain  in  the  city,  which  he 
was  permitted  to  do.  Philip  Freneau  gave  Gaine  national 
fame  by  ridiculing  him  in  verse,  a  sample  of  which,  ex- 
plaining why  he  deserted  the  Americans,  follows : 

**  As  matters  have  gone,  it  was  plainly  a  blunder, 
But  then  1  expected  the  Whigs  must  knock  under, 
But  I  always  adhere  to  the  sword  that  is  longest, 
And  stick  to  the  party  that's  like  to  be  strongest: 
That  you  have  succeeded  is  merely  a  chance, 
I  never  once  dreamed  of  the  conduct  of  France ! 
If  alliance  with  her  you  were  promised  —  at  least 
You  ought  to  have  showed  me  your  star  of  the  East, 
Not  let  me  go  off  uninformed  as  a  beast. 
When  your  army  I  saw  without  stockings  or  shoes, 
Or  victuals  or  money  —  to  pay  them  their  dues. 
Excepting  your  wretched  congressional  paper, 
That  stunk  in  my  nose  like  the  snuff  of  a  taper,"  etc. 

But  Gaine  was  not  daunted.  He  stayed  along  and,  on 
July  23,  1788,  when  New  York  celebrated  the  adoption  of 
the  Constitution,  he  was  one  of  the  marshals  of  the  great 
parade ! 

After  the  desertion  of  Gaine  during  the  campaign  in 
New  Jersey,  the  necessity  for  answering  the  attacks  and 
the  ridicule  of  James  Rivington's  Royal  Gazette,  led  Gov- 
ernor William  Livingston  of  New  Jersey  to  aid  Isaac 
Collins  in  establishing  the  New  Jersey  Gazette  at  Bur- 
lington. This  paper,  like  some  of  the  other  patriotic 
journals,  was  obliged  to  move  from  town  to  town  when 

"^^  New  York  Gazette  and  Weekly  Mercury,  September  21st  to  No- 
vember 2nd,  1776,  Nos.  1301  to  1307.  This  file  of  the  Newark  issue 
is  in  the  New  York  Public  Library. 


JOURNALISM  AND  THE  REVOLUTION         129 

the  situation  dictated  prudence,  but  kept  up  its  issuance 
with  reasonable  regularity.  ^^ 

Livingston  had  had  considerable  training  in  newspaper 
work;  in  1752  he  had  edited  the  Independent  Reflector, 
and  it  was  he  who,  in  February,  1765,  commenced  a 
series  of  papers  entitled  the  Sentinal  which  were  pub- 
lished in  Holt's  New  Jersey  Weekly  Post  Boy.  He  was 
a  steady  contributor  to  the  New  Jersey  Gazette,  under  the 
noms  de  plume  of  "  Hortentius  "  and  "  Scipio,"  and  on 
those  occasions  when  he  was  presiding  over  the  Council 
of  Safety,  somewhere  in  the  mountains  or  woods  of  New 
Jersey,  his  gifted  daughters  are  said  to  have  written  the 
caustic  articles  for  him.  ^^ 

The  Tory  editors  found  solace  in  recounting  the  mis- 
fortunes of  their  foes.  The  fall  of  Continental  money, 
or  the  impoverishment  of  the  rebel  provinces,  provided  a 
subject  for  much  jesting.  **  At  Boston,"  said  Gaine, 
"  the  people  are  starving  and  rebellious ;  food  was 
brought  them  from  the  South  by  a  land  carriage  of  1,700 
miles;  damaged  Bohea  tea,  transported  in  this  way  from 
Charleston,  was  selling  at  $15  a  pound;  West  India  Rum 
was  $12  a  gallon;  a  plain  surtout  brought  $60  and  not  a 
single  hat  could  be  bought  in  all  Boston.  The  Yankee 
privateers  had  been  chased  from  the  seas  by  the  King's 
ships;  and  the  chief  supplies  of  the  Eastern  states  were 
wholly  cut  off.  Trade  was  sunk ;  gold  and  silver  had  dis- 
appeared. Of  the  vile  Continental  currency  a  cart-load 
was  not  worth  a  dollar;  and  a  piece  of  coin  was  not  to  be 
seen  in  all  the  New  England  states." 

In  the  South  the  provinces  were  described  as  being  even 
more  unhappy,  half  the  soldiers  being  depicted  as  laid 
low  by  fever  while  the  other  half  were  longing  to  enjoy 

15  Lamb  and  Harrison,  ii,  175. 

1^  Theodore  Sedgwick,  Jr.,  Life  of  William  Livingston,  248. 


I30  HISTORY  OF  JOURNALISM 

once  more  the  protection  of  King  George.  The  people  of 
Maryland  were  preparing  to  rise  and  reconquer  the 
province.  Connecticut  was  in  a  state  of  riot  and  dis- 
order from  one  end  to  the  other,  and  everywhere  the 
people  were  sick  of  the  unnatural  war  and  were  anxious 
to  bring  it  to  an  end. 

Such  was  the  pabulum  that  was  distributed,  not  only 
to  the  Loyalists  but  to  the  many  weak-kneed  patriots  who 
came  within  the  sphere  of  influence  of  the  New  York  and 
Philadelphia  papers.  To  counteract  such  statements  was 
in  itself  a  difficult  task;  in  addition  the  patriotic  press 
not  only  had  to  deny  what  was  untruthful  in  the  Loyalist 
press,  but  had  to  write,  in  the  face  of  undeniable  mis- 
fortune, what  would  be  encouraging  and  would  keep  the 
weaker  element  from  getting  still  weaker. 

A  feature  of  importance  in  a  review  of  journalism 
during  the  Revolution  was  the  changed  attitude  of  the 
public  toward  the  new  institution.  From  indifferent  on- 
lookers in  the  contest  between  the  first  printers  and  the 
government;  from  slowly  awakened  people,  conscious  of 
their  rights,  but  not  particularly  interested  in  the  press 
that  had  awakened  them,  they  had  now  passed  to  the 
point  where  the  freedom  of  the  press  was  asserted  by 
them  as  boldly  and  as  proudly  as  it  was  asserted  by  the 
press  itself ;  it  was  now  regarded  as  their  instrument,  to 
which  they  had  every  right  and  in  which  the  setting  forth 
of  their  views  was  not  to  be  stopped.  They  now  pro- 
claimed it  the  great  engine  of  civilization  and,  as  one  of 
them  declared,  'The  test  of  truth,  the  bulwark  of  public 
safety  and  the  guardian  of  freedom."  ^^ 

This  changed  attitude  made  it  necessary  that  the  press 
be  allowed  such  encouragement  as  was  possible;  it  was 

1'^  Connecticut  Commercial  Gazette,  November  i,  1765,  quoted  in 
Barry's  History  of  Massachusetts,  second  period,  275. 


JOURNALISM  AND  THE  REVOLUTION         131 

the  beginning  of  the  desire  for  news,  the  supplying  of 
which  in  the  middle  of  the  next  century  was  to  be  found  so 
profitable  by  many  editors,  but  especially  by  the  Gree- 
leys  and  -the  Bennetts.  This  changed  attitude  on  the 
part  of  the  people  was  what  led  Washington  —  the  first 
general  in  history  to  do  so  —  to  carry  with  him  a  lit- 
erary assistant.  This  assistant  was  Thomas  Paine,  a 
born  journalist  if  there  ever  was  one,  and  his  series  of 
essays,  called  ''  The  Crisis,"  was  read  to  every  corporal's 
guard. 

Thomas  Paine  arrived  in  America  November  20,  1774, 
with  a  letter  of  introduction  from  Benjamin  Franklin  to 
his  son-in-law,  Richard  Bache.  For  eighteen  months 
Paine  edited  the  Pennsylvania  Magazine  or  American 
Museum,  and  during  that  time  the  magazine  was  ''  A  seed 
bag  from  which  this  sower  scattered  the  seeds  of  great 
reforms,  ripening  with  the  progress  of  civilization."  ^^ 

He  was  for  republican  equality  and  against  privilege. 
He  was  the  first  to  urge  an  extension  of  independence  to 
the  enslaved  negro ;  the  first  to  arraign  monarchy,  to  de- 
nounce dueling,  to  suggest  more  radical  ideas  of  mar- 
riage and  divorce,  to  call  for  justice  for  women  and 
kindliness  toward  animals,  and  to  advocate  national  and 
international  copyright. 

It  was  while  he  was  working  on  the  Pennsylvania 
Magazine  that  he  composed  ''  Common  Sense,"  with  an 
effect  "  which  has  rarely  been  produced  by  types  or  paper 
in  any  age  or  country."  ^^  Leaving  the  Pennsylvania 
Magazine,  he  joined  the  army  "  as  a  sort  of  itinerant 
writer,  of  which  his  pen  was  an  appendage,  almost  as 
necessary  and  formidable  as  its  cannon."  When  the 
spirit  of  the  colonists  drooped  he  revived  them  with  his 

18  Moncure  D.  Conway,  Life  of  Thomas  Paine,  47. 

19  Cheetham,  Life  of  Thomas  Paine,  55. 


132  HISTORY  OF  JOURNALISM 

writings,  the  first  number  of  "  The  Crisis  "  appearing 
in  December,  1776,  beginning  with  the  famous  lines: 
"  These  are  the  times  that  try  men's  souls. "^  In  January, 
1777,  the  second  number  was  published,  and  the  remain- 
ing six  appeared  at  irregular  intervals.  When  the  first 
number  reached  England,  it  was  ordered  to  be  burned  by 
the  common  hangman  near  Westminster  Hall,  but  a  mob 
assembled  and  put  out  the  fire  by  throwing  on  it  dead 
dogs  and  cats. 

The  lot  of  the  patriot  editors  was  not  always  the  hap- 
piest, but  it  had  its  later  compensations.  When  the 
British  took  New  York,  Holt  was  obliged  to  flee  with 
his  presses  to  Esopus,  (Kingston),  which  then  became 
the  seat  of  the  New  York  government.  When  this  place 
was  taken  and  burned  by  the  British,  October  16,  1777,^^ 
he  fled  with  the  government.  Indeed,  George  Clinton, 
the  Governor,  and  Holt  with  his  printing  press,  (he  had 
now  been  made  Provincial  printer)  practically  constituted 
the  government.  As  long  as  there  was  a  printing  press 
and  a  rowboat  to  take  it  away  in,  the  government  of 
New  York  was  non-capturable. 

Poughkeepsie  was  the  next  official  resting  place.  Here 
Holt  issued  his  paper  regularly  until  January  6,  1782, 
when  he  announced  that  "  as  the  people  have  been  greatly 
inconvenienced  because  they  have  not  known  what  laws 
have  been  passed  in  the  past  few  years  "  he  had  acceded 
to  the  request  of  those  in  authority  and  would  discontinue 
the  publication  of  his  paper  for  the  time  being,  in  order 
that  he  might  devote  his  time  to  the  printing  of  the 
laws. 

He  promised  that  when  the  paper  was  resumed  it 
should  be  better  than  it  had  ever  been  and  parenthetically 
observed  that  the  period  of  non-publication  would  give 

^'^  Public  Papers  of  George  Clinton,  ii,  457. 


JOURNALISM  AND  THE  REVOLUTION         133 

those  who  were  behind  in  their  subscriptions  an  oppor- 
tunity to  catch  up.  ^^ 

The  evacuation  of  Boston  by  the  British,  early  in  the 
war,  allowed  the  patriot  journals  to  hold  sway  there 
unmolested.  For  three  years,  during  which  Newport  was 
in  the  hands  of  the  enemy,  the  Newport  Mercury  was  pub- 
lished at  Rehoboth,  but  upon  their  withdrawal  the  paper 
was  brought  back  to  Newport,  and  there  resumed  its 
original  influence  under  the  editorship  of  Henry  Barber.^^ 

The  only  paper  in  Baltimore,  Goddard's  Maryland 
Journal  and  Baltimore  Advertiser,  gave  the  patriots  no 
little  concern.  Associated  with  Goddard  was  Colonel 
Eleazer  Oswald,  one  of  the  finest  artillery  officers  in  the 
American  army  —  a  man  who,  despite  his  services  in  the 
patriot  cause,  suffered  because  of  his  association  with 
Goddard,  when  the  latter's  friendship  for  Charles  Lee 
led  him  to  take  up  Lee's  fight  against  Washington.  God- 
dard w^as  mobbed  for  his  attacks  on  General  Washing- 
ton and  Oswald  left  Baltimore  and  went  to  Philadelphia. 
(As  might  be  expected  from  the  leading  position  of  the 
city  in  both  politics  and  journalism,  the  service  rendered 
by  the  Philadelphia  papers  was  second  to  none  during 
the  war.  When  the  British  entered  the  city,  however, 
both  the  Pennsylvania  Gazette  and  Bradford's  Journal 
suspended  publication.  The  Pennsylvania  Packet  or 
General  Advertiser  followed  the  example  of  Holt  and 
moved  with  the  government  up  to  Lancaster,  where  it  re- 
mained until  the  British  withdrawal.  The  Packet  was 
owned  by  Dunlap  and  Claypoole  and  afterward  became 
the  first  daily  paper  in  America. 

21  For  Holt's  official  record,  see  Public  Papers  of  George  Clinton, 
iv,  548,  659,  791,  821,  831 ;  V,  116-623-626,  633;  vi,  252,  869;  vii,  193; 
viii,  24,  33. 

22  Greene,  Short  History  of  Rhode  Island,  248. 


134  HISTORY  OF  JOURNALISM 

Imitating  the  Mercury  of  Hugh  Gaine,  the  Evening 
Post  of  Philadelphia  did  not  move  out  with  the  American 
troops,  but  remained  behind  to  welcome  the  Britishers. 
When  Washington  regained  his  position  the  editor  unsuc- 
cessfully endeavored  to  reestablish  old  friendship;  unlike 
Gaine,  he  was  not  successful. 

The  Pennsylvania  Ledger,  a  Tory  sheet  which  had 
been  suspended  for  a  year  before  the  occupation  by  the 
British,  blossomed  anew  when  Philadelphia  changed 
hands,  and  when  the  British  moved  out  of  the  city  the 
paper  moved  with  them.  The  Royal  Pennsylvania 
Gazette  was  started  by  the  British  themselves,  which 
would  indicate  that  the  advice  of  Serle  to  use  the  news- 
papers as  much  as  possible  had  been  transmitted  to  the 
cornmanding  generals. 

The  reward  of  the  patriotic  editors  at  the  end  of  the 
\var  came  in  the  form  of  great  influence  and,  in  some 
cases,  —  that  of  Isaiah  Thomas,  for  instance  —  wealth 
and  prosperity  as  the  country  developed.  A  number  of 
Tory  editors  sought  refuge  in  Nova  Scotia  and  New 
Brunswick  and  established  papers  there. 

One  or  two  of  them  remained  in  this  country,  however, 
and  finally  succeeded  in  living  down  their  reputations. 
A  ''  literary  fair  "  was  held  in  New  York  in  1802  and 
Hugh  Gaine,  then  acclaimed  the  oldest  living  bookseller, 
was  chosen  President  of  the  bookselling  fraternity,  show- 
ing how  soon  the  people  forget, —  and  forgive. 


CHAPTER  X 

AFTER  THE  REVOLUTION 

Critical  period  in  American  history  —  Greater  interest  in  the 
news  —  Prominence  of  journals  and  writers  —  Press  held  in 
contempt  as  the  representative  of  the  people  —  Characteris- 
tics of  papers  —  Bareness  of  life  of  laboring  class  —  Russell 
and  the  Massachusetts  Sentinel  —  Loyalty  of  Russell  shown 
— First  daily  in  America  —  Thomas  Greenleaf  —  His  office 
wrecked. 

The  war  is  ended,  and  there  has  come  into  existence 
a  nation  in  which  the  liberty  of  the  press  is  one  of  the 
canonical  principles.  Duri-ng  the  brief  period  from  the 
time  of  achieving  independence  to  the  adoption  of  the 
Constitution,  there  are  to  be  severe  tests  of  the  metal  of 
the  people  —  it  is  to  prove  indeed  the  critical  period  in 
American  history.  It  is  unique  in  history  as  a  period  in 
which  there  was  little  other  government  than  that  by 
public  opinion.  The  glory  of  that  period  was  the  adop- 
tion of  a  constitution  that  has  made  the  American  Re- 
public a  leader  among  nations. 

With  the  protection  and  encouragement  of  the  press 
as  one  of  the  fundamental  principles  of  the  new  nation, 
its  history  is  now  one  of  development,  and  of  participa- 
tion in  the  development  of  the  government. 

With  the  end  of  the  war  there  came  an  end,  of  course, 
to  the  Loyalist  press.  To  a  great  extent,  it  might  be 
said  that  the  patriotic  press  also  passed  away  —  not 
physically,  but  as  a  political  power  —  for  new  conditions 
brought  new  problems  and  with  these  problems  new  men 

135 


136  HISTORY  OF  JOURNALISM 

arose ;  men  who,  in  their  cleverer  use  and  more  up-to-date 
handling  of  the  new  institution,  made  the  pioneers  of 
the  pre-Revolutionary  days  seem  small  and  insignifi- 
cant. 

To  add  to  these  generally  favorable  political  condi- 
tions, there  was  a  development  of  physical  conditions,  so 
important  in  the  modern  newspaper.  In  the  first  place, 
the  war  had  furnished  a  great  incentive  to  American 
manufacturing;  types,  presses,  paper  and  ink  were  now 
manufactured  in  this  country.  The  citizens  of  the  cities 
in  which  various  papers  were  printed  had  been  aroused 
by  the  struggle  before  the  war  and  by  their  suffering  dur- 
ing the  war,  and  had  lost  their  self-interest  which  had 
made  them  indifferent  to  the  doings  of  the  outside  world. 
Their  conception  of  life  had  been  broadened  sufficiently 
to  make  them  take  a  greater  interest  in  the  '*  news." 
The  residents  of  the  different  states  had  come  to  know 
that  they  were,  after  all,  Americans,  citizens  of  one  coun- 
try. They  had  become  familiar  with  the  fact  that  im- 
portant newspapers  were  published  in  different  parts  of 
the  country. 

The  interest  in  public  matters  diversified  on  the  first 
reaction.  This  is  true  after  all  wars.  But  in  a  very 
short  time  a  few  absorbing  themes  were  arousing  the 
people.  The  depreciated  currency  and  the  large  debt  — 
as  well  as  a  lack  of  power  in  Congress,  resulting  in  that 
body  being  treated  with  the  utmost  contempt  in  the  press 
—  led  to  chaotic  conditions,  bordering  almost  on  anarchy, 
as  we  see  in  the  movement  against  lawyers  and 
judges.;  But  even  in  this  time,  when  there  was  no  rule 
but  the  rule  of  public  opinion,  and  when,  unfortunately, 
there  was  no  leadership  such  as  that  to  which  the 
people  had  become  accustomed,  there  was  still  such  a 
great  respect   for  public  opinion,   that,   out  of   all  the 


AFTER  THE  REVOLUTION  I37 

disorder  and  chaos,  there  came  a  strong  and  remarkable 
government. 

!  It  was  in  the  fight  over  the  adoption  of  the  Consti- 
tution that  those  journals  and  writers  that  were  to  be- 
come conspicuous  leaders  of  public  opinion  came  to  the 
fore,  lit  was  here  that  the  lead  was  assumed  by  New 
York,  its  geographical  position  having  given  it  an  advant- 
age which  was  freely  used  by  its  not  always  scrupulous 
politicians. 

For  the  next  twenty  years  the  press  of  the  country  was 
practically  under  the  dominance  of  two  men;  and  though 
both  would  have  indignantly  resented  the  suggestion  that 
their  activities  brought  them  within  the  classification  of 
active  journalists,  of  one  of  them  at  least,  Alexander 
Hamilton,  it  is  true  that  his  public  career  after  the  war 
was  as  closely  identified  with  the  journalism  of  the  coun- 
try as  were  the  men  who  actually  earned  their  living  by 
writing  for  and  printing  the  newspapers. 

With  the  prejudices  against  the  trade  —  prejudices  in- 
herited from  England,  the  social  ideas  of  which  still 
dominated  the  nation  —  it  was  understandable  that  men 
who  prided  themselves  on  being  "  gentlemen "  should 
disown  too  close  an  association  with  a  calling  such 
as  *'  Printing,"  which  had  yet  to  live  down  its  early 
stigma. 

What  is  to-day  regarded  as  the  very  strength  of  the 
press  was  then  a  great  cause  of  its  being  held  in  some 
contempt  —  it  actually  represented  the  people,  the  "  rab- 
ble " ;  it  came  from  the  people,  its  mechanical  artificers 
were  of  the  people,  and  therefore,  except  when  it  was 
properly  "  led,"  it  was  not  considered  a  power  for  good. 
This  distrust  of  the  masses  was  not  shown  in  the  attitude 
of  the  statesmen  of  the  period  toward  the  press  alone  — 
it  was,  as  one  writer  has  said,  a  characteristic  of  the 


138  HISTORY  OF  JOURNALISM 

eighteenth  century.  It  was  a  widespread  belief  that  the 
commonwealth  must  depend  on  the  "  powers,  estates  and 
vested  interests  "  rather  than  on  the  masses  of  the  people, 
who  were  a  danger  unless  "  led  or  repressed."  ^ 

The  prejudice  was  active,  not  only  with  the  men  who 
made  use  of  journalism  in  developing  the  policies  of  their 
respective  parties,  but  among  the  men  of  later  genera- 
tions who  undertook  to  write  the  history  of  their  country; 
and,  as  we  shall  see,  a  century  was  to  pass  before  journal- 
ism came  to  be  considered  as  having  a  professional  status 
sufficient  to  entitle  it  to  a  place  in  the  curriculum  of  a 
reputable  university. 

When  the  end  of  the  revolutionary  struggle  came,  there 
were  forty-three  papers  in  the  colonies.  The  three  best 
of  these  were  the  Connecticut  C  our  ant,  the  Boston  Ga- 
zette and  the  Pennsylvania  Packet.  Their  news  was 
either  very  general  or  very  local ;  the  advertisements  were 
matters  of  particular  importance  to  the  people  locally. 
The  essays  and  contributed  editorials  were  of  interest  to 
those  of  culture  and  to  those  who  had  ideas  and  theories  as 
to  the  government.  For  the  academic  and  literary,  there 
was  poetry  and  sometimes  ponderous  literary  work.  The 
Boston  Weekly  Advertiser  printed  as  a  serial,  "  Robert- 
son's History  of  America,"  which  ran  through  one  hun- 
dred and  fifty  numbers. 
(  The  lack  of  news  concerning  the  country  in  general  was 
due  almost  entirely  to  the  difficulties  of  transmission. 
The  Post-Office  would  not  carry  the  papers  and  the  post- 
riders  had  to  be  bribed  to  take  them  along  with  the  letters. 
It  took  six  days  for  a  letter  to  go  from  Boston  to  New 
York,  or  nine  days  in  bad  weather;  still,  when  a  paper 
arrived  in  a  small  village,  nearly  all  the  adult  population 
gathered  around  the  minister  while  he  read  it  from  start 
^  Walker,  Making  of  the  Nation,  150. 


AFTER  THE  REVOLUTION  139 

to  finish.     The  dignity  and  prosperity  of  a  town  were  V 
estabhshed  by  the  fact  that  it  supported  a  weekly  journal.  ^  / -'' 

The  absence  of  political  parties  gave  emphasis  to  the 
two  great  divisions  of  society,  i.  e.,  the  rich  and  the  poor. 

Unskilled  labor  was  paid  but  two  shillings  a  day,  and 
it  was  only  by  the  strictest  economy  that  the  laborer  kept 
his  children  from  starvation  and  himself  from  jail.  He 
was  not  considered  one  of  the  real  people,  had  no  right 
to  vote,  lived  in  low  dingy  rooms,  rarely  tasted  meat  and 
looked  up  respectfully  to  those  who  were  able  to  vote  — 
those,  that  is,  who  were  able  to  pay  the  tax  that  gave 
them  the  franchise  —  as  his  *'  betters."  He  dressed  in  a 
way  that  marked  him  wherever  he  went :  "'  A  pair  of 
yellow  buckskin  or  leathern  breeches,  a  checked  shirt,  a 
red  flannel  jacket,  a  rusty  felt  hat  cocked  up  at  the  cor- 
ners, shoes  of  neat's-skin  set  off  with  huge  buckles  of 
brass,  and  a  leathern  apron,  comprised  his  scanty  ward- 
robe." 3 

Spring  elections  for  1785  found  the  papers  filled 
with  exhortations  to  the  people  to  oppose  all  those  who 
were  aristocrats.  *'  Beware  the  lav/yers !  Beware  the 
lawyers!"  was  the  title  of  a  pamphlet,  typical  of  the 
times,  exhorting  them  to  vote  against  those  who  were 
interested  in  property  and  not  in  human  rights.  ^  The 
people  were  led  to  believe  that  the  lawyers  prospered  only 
as  the  people  suffered,  this  prejudice  going  so  far  that 
even  the  judges  were  notified  that  the  people  did  not  want 
them  to  sit. 

Another  problem  that  the  people  had  to  face  was  the 
lack  of  sound  coinage,  for  counterfeiters  and  clippers 
were  so  busy  that  it  was  said  that  a  good  halfpenny  or  a 

2  McMaster,  History,  i,  58. 

3  McMaster,  History,  i,  97. 

*  New  York  Packet,  April  7,  1785. 


140  HISTORY  OF  JOURNALISM 

full  weight  pistareen  was  not  to  be  found  in  the  States. 
The  papers  of  the  colonies  warned  their  readers  to  be- 
ware of  counterfeiters  and  to  take  no  French  guineas 
"  till  they  had  examined  carefully  the  hair  on  the  King's 
head."  ^ 

In  times  past,  especially  in  New  England,  it  had  been 
the  ministers  who  had  dominated  the  community,  men- 
tally as  well  as  religiously.  The  great  career  of  Frank- 
lin, already  passed  into  history  and  associated  with  news- 
papers, and  the  honored  names  of  Samuel  Adams,  Otis 
and  others,  led  the  people  to  give  stricter  attention  to  the 
journalists  who  began  to  be  more  numerous  and  more 
conspicuous.  In  turn,  young  men, — who,  in  the  early 
days  of  the  colonies,  would  have  chosen  the  profession  of 
minister,  lawyer,  doctor,  or  even  school-master  —  now 
began  to  see  the  possibilities  of  training  for  a  vocation 
that  had  the  attraction  of  wielding  great  influence  in  the 
community. 

Not  in  war  so  much  as  in  the  after- war  periods  are 
democracies  threatened.  This  is  shown  by  the  critical 
periods  in  American  history.-  The  reasons  are  that  men 
will  rush  to  the  defense  of  their  homes,  but  on  their  re- 
turn they  are  restless  of  their  old  responsibilities  and, 
with  the  lack  of  discipline  of  a  democracy,  are  apt  to 
listen  to  the  dreamer  or  the  theorist. 

\When  the  war  broke  out,  journalism  had  established 
itself  as  an  institution  and  the  freedom  of  the  press  was 
no  longer  a  matter  that  concerned  solely  the  unfortunate 
printer  like  Harris,  who  dared  the  prejudices,  the  igno- 
rance and  autocracy  of  the  times ;  the  martyrs  of  the  past 
could  have  wished  for  no  greater  results  than  those  which 
had  come  about  in  but  a  little  over  a  century  —  a  country 

^  New  York  Packet,  April  21,  1785;  Pennsylvania  Packet,  May  13, 
1784. 


AFTER  THE  REVOLUTION  141 

free  from  all  the  old  autocratic  ideas  of  the  past,  liber- 
ated from  the  old  tyrannies,  not  by  compromise,  but  by 
blood,  and  carrying  aloft,  as  one  of  its  most  important 
standards,  the  Liberty  of  the  Press.  While  the  people 
gave  much  credit  to  educated  men  such  as  Samuel  Adams 
and  John  Adams,  they  gave  greater  credit  to  themselves 
as  the  class  from  which  had  sprung  the  Franklins,  the 
Zengers  and  such  men  as  Edes.  The  success  of  a  cause 
is  dependent  on  the  quality  of  the  fighters  that  are  at- 
tracted to  it,  but  we  are  all  a  little  inclined  to  concen- 
trate our  attention  on  the  socially  distinguished  rather 
than  on  those  whose  surtouts  show  wear.  The  judg- 
ments of  history  are  continually  being  reversed,  while 
such  men  as  Harris  and  Zenger  have  had  difficulty  in 
getting  into  history  at  all.  Class  consciousness  arose  in 
this  period  through  the  sense  of  affiliation  with  men  who 
were  good  fighters,  even  if  they  were  not  of  the  best  fam- 
ilies or  the  ruling  class. 

\There  was  another  reason  why  journalism  was  to  come 
into  its  own.  Up  to  the  time  of  the  Revolution  it  was, 
even  when  uncensored  and  free  from  persecution,  at  best 
a  tolerated  usurper  of  authority,  a  disturber  of  the  peace 
and  of  conditions  as  they  were.  Under  the  new  condi- 
tions it  was  the  voice  of  the  people  —  recognized  as  such 
even  by  those  who  lamented  the  democratic  tendencies  of 
the  times  and  the  growing  influence  of  journalism.  Even 
they  were  driven  to  journalism  to  controvert  the  "per- 
nicious "  theories  that  were  sweeping  away  the  old  order 
of  things./ 

But  the  new  figures  in  the  field  were  fully  alive  to  their 
responsibilities  as  well  as  to  their  opportunities.  Not 
only  were  they  unawed  by  the  difference  between  the 
humble  beginnings  of  journalism  and  the  mightiness  of 
those  who  had  been  dethroned,  but  they  were  determined 


142  HISTORY  OF  JOURNALISM 

on  a  still   further  participation   in  government,   and  a 
further  elimination  of  class  distinction. 

No  better  example  of  the  new  type  of  journalist  was 
there  than  Major  Benjamin  Russell,  who,  in  addition  to 
learning  his  business  with  Thomas,  had  served  six  months 
as  Thomas'  substitute  in  the  Continental  Army.  With 
a  partner  named  Warden,  he  began,  on  March  24,  1784, 
the  publication  of  a  semi-weekly,  the  Massachusetts  Cen- 
tinel  and  the  Republican  Journal.  For  forty-two  years 
the  paper  under  his  leadership  was  an  actual  power,  not 
in  the  sense  that  the  old  Gazette  had  been,  as  the  repre- 
sentative of  a  group,  but  because  it  represented  Russell's 
own  personality  and  responded  to  his  will  as  he  inter- 
preted the  public  sentiment.  In  many  ways  it  was  the 
prototype  of  the  great  American  dailies  as  we  are  to  see 
them  later  in  the  times  of  Greeley,  Bennett,  and  others. 
Gradually,  it  marked  the  continuation  of  Boston's  leader- 
ship of  the  Press. 

Russell  had  had  a  good  training  in  the  printing  office 
of  Thomas  and  had  earned  a  majority  in  the  Continental 
Army.  When  Major  Andre  was  executed  Russell  was 
one  of  the  guard.  As  a  journalist  he  showed  at  once  that 
he  had  no  inclination  to  play  a  minor  part,  and  led  an 
attack  on  those  British  factors  and  agents  who,  now  that 
the  war  was  over,  were  endeavoring  to  build  up  British 
trade.  He  put  his  opposition  to  business  relations  with 
the  British  on  many  grounds,  but  the  most  effective  was 
that  it  tended  to  drain  the  country  of  currency,  which, 
in  those  days  of  financial  confusion,  was  an  alarming 
prospect. 

Although  a  Federalist,  Russell,  as  might  be  expected 
of  one  bred  in  New  England  and  sensitive  to  all  its  preju- 
dices, did  not  follow  the  lead  of  Hamilton  in  the  matter 
of  advocating  liberal  treatment  of  the  Loyalists.     The 


AFTER  THE  REVOLUTION  ,       143 

antipathies  bred  by  the  war,  he  argued,  had  taken  too 
deep  root.® 

News,  in  the  sense  of  personahties,  could  not  be  car- 
ried further  than  he  carried  it  in  depicting  the  scene  when 
his  sanctum  was  invaded  by  an  irate  citizen,  who  threat- 
ened to  kill  him.  This  was  a  news  development  that  was 
afterward  to  be  emulated  by  James  Gordon  Bennett  and 
other  editors  attacked  under  similar  circumstances. 

When  it  came  to  the  fight  for  the  adoption  of  the  Con- 
stitution, Russell  was  a  tower  of  strength  in  the  only  issue 
that  ever  gave  the  Federalist  party  any  great  popularity. 
But  he  went  further.  He  organized  meetings  of  the  plain 
people  of  Boston  to  urge  ratification;  and  as  other  states 
ratified,  each  ratification  was  set  forth  prominently. 
There  is  modern  enterprise  shown  in  his  account  of  the 
part  he  played  when  the  Massachusetts  convention,  held 
in  a  church,  came  to  pass  on  the  Constitution : 

I  never  had  studied  stenography,  nor  was  there  any  person 
then  in  Boston  that  understood  reporting.  The  presiding  offi- 
cer of  the  convention  sat  in  the  Deacon's  seat,  under  the  pulpit. 
I  took  the  pulpit  for  my  reporting  desk,  and  a  very  good  one 
it  was.  I  succeeded  well  enough  in  this  my  first  effort  to  give  a 
tolerable  fair  report  in  my  next  paper ;  but  the  puritanical  no- 
tions had  not  entirely  faded  away,  and  I  was  voted  out  of  the 
pulpit.  A  stand  was  fitted  up  for  me  in  another  place,  and  I 
proceeded  with  my  reports,  generally  to  the  acceptance  of  the 
Convention.  The  doubts  that  still  existed  as  to  whether  enough 
of  the  states  would  come  into  the  compact  to  make  the  Constitu- 
tion binding,  made  the  proceedings  of  the  Convention  intensely 
interesting.  When  the  news  arrived  of  the  acceptance  of  it  by 
the  state  of  Virginia,  there  was  a  most  extraordinary  outbreak 
of  rejoicing.  It  seemed  as  if  the  meeting-house  would  burst 
with  the  acclamation. '^ 

His  loyalty  is  instanced  by  the  fact  that  he  printed  the 
public  laws  gratuitously  and,  when  the  bill  was  asked  for, 

«  Centinel,  August,  1784.  ^  Hudson,  150. 


144  HISTORY  OF  JOURNALISM 

sent  a  receipt.  Washington  himself  directed  that  he  be 
paid : 

"  This  must  not  be,"  said  Washington,  on  learning  the 
fact.  "  When  Mr.  Russell  offered  to  publish  the  laws 
without  pay,  we  were  poor.  It  was  a  generous  offer. 
We  are  now  able  to  pay  our  debts.  This  is  a  debt  of 
honor,  and  must  be  discharged." 

Shortly  afterward  a  check  for  seven  thousand  dollars 
was  sent  to  Major  Russell.^ 

It  was  such  ardent  advocacy  of  the  Federal  constitu- 
tion, ably  backed  up  by  Hamilton  in  the  "  Federalist,"  that 
brought  to  the  Federal  party  its  main  support.  While  the 
Federalists  were  the  party  in  favor  of  the  Constitution 
the  opposition  could  not  stand  against  them.  Once,  how- 
ever, that  issue  was  dead,  and  the  issue  became  popular 
control,  with  the  Federalists  opposed  to  popular  rights, 
they  lost  influence.  Party  consistency,  however,  led  men 
like  Russell  to  remain  Federalists,  and  this  he  did  even 
up  to  the  administration  of  Madison,  when  he  bitterly 
opposed  the  war  with  England  —  the  last  stand  of  the 
Federalist  party,  which  practically  passed  away  with  the 
Hartford  convention.  The  election  of  Monroe  marked 
its  complete  eclipse,  and  then  followed  the  "  era  of  good 
feeling,"  an  expression  said  to  have  been  originally  ut- 
tered by  Russell. 

Although  Philadelphia  had  no  such  distinctive  charac- 
ter as  Russell  to  take  up  the  fight  for  journalism  after 
the  war,  it  was  in  this  period  that  Philadelphia  offered  the 
country  its  first  daily  paper.  On  September  21,  1784,  the 
Pennsylvania  Packet  or  General  Advertiser  of  Dunlap 
and  Claypoole  appeared  as  a  daily,  evidently  in  response 
to  a  large  increase  in  the  advertisements,  for  in  the  first 
issue  of  this  new  daily  there  were  plenty  of  advertise- 

8  Hudson,  152. 


AFTER  THE  REVOLUTION  145 

ments  but  not  a  single  line  of  comment  to  indicate  that 
the  founders  of  the  first  daily  newspaper  on  the  Ameri- 
can continent  were  aware  that  they  were  embarking  on  a 
most  interesting  and  historic  undertaking.^ 

For  some  time  after  the  Revolution  there  was  no  vig- 
orous newspaper  in  New  York.  The  New  York  Journal, 
which  we  have  seen,  during  the  Revolution,  fighting  on 
amid  difficulties,  came  back  to  the  city  Vv^ith  the  English 
withdrawal ;  but  old  John  Holt  had  run  his  course,  dying 
a  year  after.  The  widow  and  Eleazer  Oswald,  a  rela- 
tive, continued  it  until  1787,  when  it  was  bought  by 
Thomas  Greenleaf,  an  enterprising  printer,  son  of  the 
Joseph  Greenleaf  whose  writings  in  the  Massachusetts 
Spy  had  so  incensed  the  royal  authorities.  Greenleaf 
had  learned  his  trade  under  Isaiah  Thomas  and  had 
worked  as  a  sub-editor  of  the  Independent  Chronicle  of 
Boston.  Beginning  November  19,  1787,  he  issued  a 
daily,  the  New  York  Journal  and  Daily  Patriotic  Regis- 
ter, the  first  in  New  York  and  the  second  in  America. 
Greenleaf's  training,  as  one  might  expect,  was  such  as 
to  make  him  suspicious  of  the  "  big  wigs  "  who  had  gath- 
ered in  Philadelphia,  and,  when  the  controversy  started 
over  the  adoption  of  the  Constitution,  his  paper  printed 
the  "  Brutus  "  series  in  answer  to  the  ''  Federalist."  He 
was  not  content  with  mere  argument,  however.  When 
the  Constitution  was  adopted  by  the  state,  and  the  jubi- 
lant citizens  expressed  their  exultation  by  a  parade  and 
a  pageant,  Greenleaf  devoted  a  column  to  ridiculing  the 
festivity  and  those  who  had  taken  part  in  it. 

In  the  following  issue  he  announced  that  the  daily  had 
been  given  up,  pathetically  adding  that  those  who  intended 
to  withdraw  subscriptions  ''  at  this  juncture  of  the  Print- 

»  The  first  daily  newspaper  in  England,  the  Daily  Courant,  had  ap- 
peared March  11,  1702. 


146  HISTORY  OF  JOURNALISM 

er's  sufferings  and  distress  will  please  to  indulge  them- 
selves one  more  reflection  on  the  subject."  In  the  suc- 
ceeding issue  he  tells  the  whole  story,  admitting  the  folly 
of  trying  to  conceal  what  had  happened.  The  jubilant 
paraders,  roused  more  by  his  ridicule  of  themselves  than 
by  his  attack  on  the  Constitution,  had  broken  into  his 
place  and,  though  he  fired  twice  at  the  mob,  he  was  obliged 
to  retreat,  while  most  of  his  plant  was  destroyed. ^^  It  is 
a  good  graphic  story  that  he  writes,  the  kind  that  editors 
do  write  as  a  rule  when  their  places  have  been  attacked 
or  they  have  been  horse-whipped;  the  mode  of  punish- 
ment for  editors,  as  we  shall  see,  varying  with  the  gener- 
ations. 

After  this  Greenleaf  naturally  turned  more  earnestly  to 
the  anti-Federalist  party;  his  was  the  first  Democratic 
organ  in  the  country,  and  the  first  to  attack  Washington's 
administration.  His  alignment  with  the  Democratic 
party  became  so  complete  that  in  1789  he  was  elected  a 
sachem  of  Tammany  Hall.  On  his  death,  the  Independ- 
ent Chronicle  of  Boston  said,  "  he  was  a  steady,  uniform, 
zealous  supporter  of  the  Rights  of  Humanity."  ^^ 

The  crowning  glory  of  the  party  was  the  "  Federalist," 
Alexander  Hamilton's  great  contribution  to  journalism 
and  political  literature.  To  the  publication  of  the  "  Fed- 
eralist "  in  the  newspapers  of  the  country  has  been  as- 
cribed the  fact  that  the  doubting  country  accepted  the 
Federal  Constitution. 

In  the  Federal  convention  that  met  in  Philadelphia  in 
1787,  there  was  no  real  appreciation  of  the  democratic 
character  of  the  nation.  In  that  convention,  democratic 
sentiment  was  in  a  weak  minority ;  the  Federal  union  was 

^^  New  York  Journal  and  Patriotic  Register,  July  24,  July  31,  Au- 
gust 7,  1786. 

11  September  24,  1789. 


AFTER  THE  REVOLUTION  147 

the  work  of  the  commercial  people  of  the  seaport  towns, 
the  planters  of  the  slave  states,  the  officers  of  the  Revo- 
lutionary a-rmy  and  the  property-holders. ^^ 

This  lack  of  realization  was  reflected,  first,  in  the  fear 
that  the  executive  might  assume  the  powers  of  a  king; 
secondly,  in  the  long  serious  discussions  which  led  to  the 
complicated  machinery  by  which  the  choice  of  the  presi- 
dent was  left  to  an  electoral  college. ,  This,  it  was  in- 
tended, should  consist  of  estimable  and  well-informed 
gentlemen  who  would  meet  and  select,  after  calm  and 
lofty  debate,  the  best  possible  candidate,  according  to 
*'  their  own  unfettered  judgment." 

So  little  did  the  Fathers  realize  that  there  was,  aside 
from  the  legislative,  executive  and  judicial  branches  of 
government,  a  fourth  factor,  the  power  of  public  opinion, 
that  it  was  a  matter  of  astonishment  to  them  that  in  the 
very  first  instance  public  opinion  reduced  the  electoral 
college  and  its  estimable  gentlemen  to  mere  automatons. 

The  fear  of  the  conservative  element  was  that  the  voters 
of  the  country  were  so  widely  scattered  that  they  would 
not  be  informed  on  the  questions  or  the  character  of  the 
men  at  issue.  There  was  not  the  slightest  indication 
throughout  the  entire  convention  that  the  makers  of  the 
constitution  appreciated  the  great  power  of  public  opinion 
and  the  changes  it  was  going  to  make  in  their  Constitu- 
tion. 

True  it  is  that  Benjamin  Franklin  sat  in  this  conven- 
tion and  was  one  of  its  most  conspicuous  figures ;  from 
him,  the  once  poor  printer  who  had  risen  to  great  power 
and  authority,  visions  as  to  the  power  of  the  press  in  the 
future  might  have  been  expected. 

But  Franklin  was  old,  the  last  fifty  years  of  his  life 
had  been  spent  in  courts,  in  diplomatic  usage,  in  polite 
^^Life  of  John  Adams,  i,  441. 


148  HISTORY  OF  JOURNALISM 

and  scientific  circles  —  a  far  cry  from  the  simple  demo- 
cratic beginnings  in  Boston  and  Philadelphia,  when  he 
had  been  so  keen  an  analyst  of  the  average  man's  heart 
and  aspirations. 

Samuel  Adams,  another  great  democrat  whose  vision 
might  have  helped  the  convention,  was  at  home,  a  dis- 
appointed and  disapproving  man.  John  Adams  and 
Thomas  Jefferson  were  both  abroad. 

No  other  clause  of  the  Constitution  has  so  little  re- 
flected the  ability  of  the  Fathers  as  the  one  relating  to  the 
election  of  the  president.  The  greatness  of  the  men  who 
wrote  this  constitution  looms  always  larger  and  larger  — 
an  assembly  of  demi-gods,  Jefferson  called  them, —  for 
they  possessed  in  an  unusual  degree  the  faculty  of  states- 
manship, and  of  seeing  clearly  what  would  be  the  results 
of  a  political  act.  That  they  failed  to  see  the  power  of 
public  opinion  was  one  reason  why  the  Constitution  was  so 
bitterly  opposed  that  they  were  unable  to  have  it  adopted 
until,  following  the  suggestion,  or  rather  the  demands,  of 
Samuel  Adams  and  Thomas  Jefferson,  the  pledge  was 
given  that,  as  soon  as  it  was  adopted,  amendments  would 
be  passed  containing  the  essential  provisions  of  the  Bill 
of  Rights,  guaranteeing  freedom  of  speech  and  of  the 
press. 

On  Alexander  Hamilton  fell  the  burden  of  defending 
the  Constitution,  and  under  his  leadership  was  founded 
the  first  of  American  parties  —  the  'Federalist  party. 
The  methods  of  party  warfare  that  he  inaugurated  were 
to  be,  in  outline,  the  methods  of  the  next  century ;  the  use 
to  which  he  put  the  newspapers  emphasized  more  than 
ever  their  importance  in  American  government. 

With  every  other  aspect  of  Alexander  Hamilton's 
many-sided  career,  except  that  of  a  journalist,  every 
American  schoolboy  is  familiar.     It  was,  his  biographer 


AFTER  THE  REVOLUTION  149 

states,  a  brilliant  newspaper  description  of  a  hurricane 
that  decided  his  career  at  the  age  of  fifteen.  He  was 
then  an  orphan,  of  romantic  parentage,  living  in  one  of 
the  West  Indian  islands ;  this  bit  of  writing  led  the  prin- 
cipal people  of  the  island  to  decide  that  he  ought  to  have 
a  larger  career  than  Santa  Cruz  afforded  and,  in  accord- 
ance with  his  wishes,  he  was  sent  to  New  York  to  be  edu- 
cated. He  early  distinguished  himself  on  the  side  of  the 
patriotic  cause  as  an  orator  and  conversationalist ;  almost 
from  the  time  he  arrived  in  America  he  was  a  contribu- 
tor, especially  on  political  subjects,  to  the  New  York  Ga- 
zette, and  later  to  the  other  journals. 

It  is  for  the  essays  that  Hamilton  wrote  with  Madison 
and  Jay  under  the  title  of  the  *'  Federalist ''  that  the  jour- 
nalism of  the  period  is  noteworthy.  They  have,  from  the 
influence  that  they  gave  to  the  press  of  the  time,  been 
likened  to  the  letters  of  Junius,  which,  appearing  in  the 
Public  Advertiser  of  London  during  the  year  1765,  went 
far  to  counteract  the  feeling  in  England  that  everything 
connected  w^ith  journalism  was  superficial  and  ephemeral. 

The  first  of  these  essays,  afterward  to  be  famous  as 
the  most  profound  treatises  on  government,  was  written 
by  Hamilton  in  the  cabin  of  a  sloop  as  he  came  down  the 
Hudson.  It  w^as  first  published  in  the  Independent  Jour- 
nal  of  New  York,  on  October  2j,  17^7,  and  not  in  the 
Independent  Gazetteer,  which  was  edited  by  Colonel  Elea- 
zer  Oswald,  a  friend  of  Greenleaf ;  a  man  unlikely  to  be 
made  a  confidant  by  Hamilton —  their  differences,  in  fact, 
leading  Oswald  to  challenge  Hamilton  to  a  duel  in  1798.^^ 

13  This  error  is  made  by  Professor  McMaster  in  his  History  of  the 
People  of  the  United  States,  i,  583,  and  repeated  by  John  Fiske,  Criti- 
cal Period  of  American  History,  341. 

Not  only  did  Oswald  and  his  paper  oppose  Hamilton  and  his  politi- 
cal theories,  but  tov,'ard  the  English,  with  whom  Hamilton  sympa- 
thized, Oswald  carried  his  opposition  so  far  that  he  had  been  called 


150  HISTORY  OF  JOURNALISM 

From  October,  1787,  until  the  following  April  several 
numbers  of  the  *'  Federalist  "  appeared  every  week  and 
were  copied  by  the  friendly  papers,  or  by  those  with  whom 
the  Federalists  had  influence,  throughout  the  country. 
William  Duer  wrote  several,  and  both  Jay  and  Madison 
were  contributors,  but  the  main  burden  fell  on  Hamilton. 
In  one  of  the  very  last  numbers  he  answered  the  criticism 
that  there  was  not,  in  the  Constitution,  a  specific  declara- 
tion in  favor  of  a  free  press : 

"  In  the  first  place,"  he  stated,  ''  I  observe  that  there  is 
not  a  syllable  concerning  it  in  the  Constitution  of  this 
state;  in  the  next  I  contend  that  whatever  has  been  said 
about  it  in  that  of  any  other  state,  amounts  to  nothing. 
What  signifies  a  declaration,  that  *  the  liberty  of  the 
press  shall  be  inviolably  preserved  '  ?  What  is  the  lib- 
erty of  the  press?  Who  can  give  it  any  definition  which 
would  not  leave  the  utmost  latitude  for  evasion?  I  hold 
it  to  be  impracticable;  and  from  this  I  infer  that  its  se- 
curity, whatever  fine  declarations  may  be  inserted  in  any 
constitution  respecting  it,  must  altogether  depend  on  pub- 
lic opinion,  and  on  the  general  spirit  of  the  people  and 
the  government.  And  here,  after  all,  as  is  intimated 
upon  another  occasion,  we  must  seek  for  the  only  solid 
basis  of  all  our  rights." 

With  such  words,  especially  when  the  wonderful  un- 
selfishness that  was  back  of  them  and  the  lofty  concep- 
tion of  duty  that  inspired  them  were  known,  the  doubters 
were  put  to  flight,  but  the  distrust  due  to  the  feeling  that 
omissions  had  been  made  in  the  preparation  of  the  Consti- 
tution was  the  beginning  of  party  strife.     The  nobility 

the  first  American  Fenian.  He  died  of  yellow  fever  in  New  York 
on  September  30,  1795,  and  his  body  is  buried  in  St.  Paul's  Church- 
yard ;  in  spring  and  summer  it  affords  a  shady  noon  resting-place 
for  the  girl  employees  of  the  same  Evening  Post  that  was  once 
William  Coleman's. 


AFTER  THE  REVOLUTION  15 1 

of  Hamilton's  character  and  the  great  abiHty  and  worth 
of  his  contributions  shine  nowhere  more  clearly  than  in 
these  writings,  but  the  very  political  division  that  he 
created  as  he  labored  was  one  that  was  to  bear,  for  him, 
bitter  fruits.  Hamilton,  in  his  fight  for  the  adoption  of 
the  Constitution,  stirred  many  others,  but  none  more 
notable  than  John  Dickinson.  Signing  himself  "  Fa- 
bius,"  Dickinson  came  to  the  defense  of  the  new  Consti- 
tution, his  writings  displaying  marked  literary  ability,  as 
well  as  a  knowledge  of  government  second  only  to  that 
shown  in  the  ''  Federalist." 

The  founder  of  Dickinson  College  had  to  suffer  many 
bitter  aspersions  on  his  loyalty,  despite  his  great  contri- 
bution to  the  political  cause  in  the  ''  Farmers'  Letters," 
previously  referred  to. 

In  1798,  in  a  new  series  under  the  signature  "  Fabius," 
printed  in  the  ''  New  World,"  Dickinson  took  the  high 
ground  that  it  was  the  duty  of  Americans  to  forget  the 
insults  of  Genet  and  to  work  out  a  policy  toward  France 
that  would  show  ''  the  proper  sense  of  gratitude  to  that 
country."  ^"^ 

Although  a  frequent  contributor  to  the  newspapers, 
Dickinson  was  not  oblivious  to  their  faults,  as  is  shown 
by  the  letter  which  he  wrote  to  the  publisher  of  every 
newspaper  in  Philadelphia  when  he  was  about  to  be  mar- 
ried, in  July,  1770;  a  letter  with  a  very  modern  appeal. 

Gentlemen : 

I  earnestly  entreat  as  a  favor  of  great  weight  with  me  that 
you  will  not  insert  in  your  newspaper  any  other  account  of  my 
marriage  than  this:  ''  Last  Thursday,  John  Dickinson,  Esquire, 
was  married  to  Miss  Mary  Morris."  An  account  of  the  expres- 
sions of  joy  on  the  occasion  will  give  me  inexpressible  pain, 
and  very  great  uneasiness  to  a  number  of  very  worthy  rela- 
tions. 

1*  Stille,  Life  of  Dickinson,  296. 


152  HISTORY  OF  JOURNALISM 

The  new  Constitution  was  to  bring  new  journals  and 
new  editors.  In  the  Gazette  of  the  United  States,  of 
April  25,  1789,  it  is  stated  that  on  the  Saturday  previous 
"  the  most  illustrious  President  of  the  United  States  ar- 
rived in  this  city.  At  Elizabethtown  he  was  received  by 
a  deputation  of  three  senators  and  five  representatives  of 
the  United  States,  and  the  officers  of  the  state  and  cor- 
poration, with  whom  he  embarked  on  the  barge  for  the 
purpose  of  wafting  him  across  the  bay.  It  is  impossible 
to  do  justice  to  an  attempt  to  describe  the  scene  exhibited 
in  his  Excellency's  approach  to  the  city.*' 

The  same  paper  also  noted  the  arrival  of  the  schooner 
Columbia,  Captain  P.  Freneau,  eight  days  out  of 
Charleston.  On  board  was  *'  Dr.  King,  from  South 
Africa,  with  a  collection  of  natural  curiosities,  particu- 
larly a  male  and  female  ourang  outang."  As  the  escort 
for  Washington  proceeded  up  the  bay,  Captain  Freneau, 
poet,  seaman  and  scholar,  brought  his  ship  —  with  its 
cargo  of  monkeys  —  into  line  and  sailed  along  with  the 
gorgeous  procession  that  was  escorting  the  President- 
elect to  the  capital  city. 

As  the  editor  of  the  National  Gazette,  Freneau  was, 
more  than  any  one  else,  to  be  responsible  for  the  political 
acrimony  that  marked  the  beginning  of  government  in 
this  country.  To  him  John  Adams  traced  his  downfall. 
It  was  this  man,  Freneau,  of  whom  Jefferson  said,  when 
Washington  had  practically  urged  him  to  get  rid  of  his 
services,  that  he  (Freneau)  and  his  paper,  the  Na- 
tional Gazette,  had  done  more  than  any  other  single 
agency  to  combat  the  Hamiltonian  political  theories  and 
to  keep  the  country  from  all  monarchical  ideas. 


CHAPTER  XI 

GROWTH  OF  PARTY  PRESS 

Reticence  of  Hamilton  —  The  Gazette  of  the  United  States  — 
John  Fenno  —  His  difficulties  —  Jefferson's  estimate  of  im- 
portance of  newspapers  —  His  attitude  toward  Hamilton  — 
Philip  Freneau  selected  to  reply  to  Fenno's  writings  —  Gov- 
ernment position  offered  Freneau  —  Hamilton  attacks  Jef- 
ferson. 

One  may  search  in  vain  through  the  ccrrespondence  of 
Hamilton  for  light  on  the  important  part  in  journalism 
that  he  was  to  play  during  the  remaining  years  of  his  life. 
One  looks  especially  for  some  inkling  of  Hamilton's  own 
thoughts  as  to  the  significance  of  the  moves  that  led  to 
the  launching  of  what  was  to  be  a  gigantic  political  press. 
But  there  is  not  a  word,  and,  considering  the  greatness  of 
the  tasks  that  confronted  him  —  establishing  the  credit 
of  the  nation  not  the  least  among  them  —  it  is  not  sur- 
prising that  his  purely  political  activities  are  not  set  forth 
at  length.  There  is  no  hint  as  to  what  he  thought  of  his 
own  newspaper  activities ;  it  is  all  behind  the  scenes,  and 
for  light  we  must  go  elsewhere  than  to  his  correspondence 
or  his  biographies;  the  charges  of  his  adversaries  form- 
ing, in  fact,  the  chief  source  of  information. 

When  we  consider  that  Hamilton  owed  his  education 
to  a  cleverly  written  newspaper  article,  and  that  he  had 
seen,  in  the  articles  comprising  the  "  Federalist "  how  he 
might  sway  a  nation  through  his  writings,  it  is  but  nat- 
ural that  when  he  was  no  longer  a  contestant  for  power, 
but  in  power;  no  longer  a  secretary  or  a  mere  aide,  but 
an  important  official  of  the  government  of  the  United 

153 


154  HISTORY  OF  JOURNALISM 

States  —  his  mind  should  turn  as  it  did. '  On  April  15, 
1789,  there  appeared  in  New  York,  the  seat  of  the 
new  government,  a  National  newspaper,  the  Gazette  of 
the  United  States,  superior  in  plan  and  make-up  to  any 
paper  then  in  existence.  Its  prospectus  proclaimed  its 
ambition  to  be  the  organ  of  the  government;  it  would 
print  the  debates  and  the  important  papers ;  it  would  con- 
tain from  time  to  time  serious  and  thoughtful  articles  on 
government;  it  wished  for  the  patronage  of  people  of 
wealth  and  culture  because  they  would  find  there  such 
reading  as  would  please  them,  and  it  did  not  neglect  to 
add  that  it  also  wanted  the  good-will  of  the  "  mechanics  " 

—  Lincoln's  *'  plain  people  "  were  then  addressed  as  me- 
chanics. 

The  editor  and  publisher  of  this  paper  was  John  Fenno 
of  Boston,  a  school  teacher  —  a  man  without  a  biog- 
rapher, although  it  was  his  paper  and  the  articles  appear- 
\ing  therein  that  brought  about  the  famous  quarrel  be- 
tween Jefferson  and  Hamilton.  All  that  is  known  about 
him  is  that  he  was  a  native  of  Boston,  born  August  12, 
1 75 1,  and  that  he  was  a  teacher  for  several  years  in  the 
Old  South  Writing  School,  Boston.  Why  it  was  that 
this  man  —  unknown  in  New  York,  undistinguished 
either  as  printer  or  writer,  and  apparently  without  means 

—  came  to  New  York  to  establish  a  national  organ  for 
the  party  of  which  Hamilton  was  the  most  conspicuous 
leader,  is  not  revealed  in  any  of  the  documents  of  the 
correspondence  of  the  time,  with  one  single  exception. 

The  exception  is  a  letter  from  Christopher  Gore  of 
Boston,  introducing  Fenno  to  Rufus  King,  a  leading  Fed- 
eralist—  later  to  be  one  of  the  first  United  States  Sena- 
tors from  New  York.  Gore  stated  that  Fenno  had  con- 
ceived a  plan  for  a  newspaper  "  for  the  purpose  of  demon- 
strating   favorable   sentiments   of   the    federal   constitu- 


GROWTH  OF  PARTY  PRESS  155 

tion  and  its  administration,"  and  went  on  to  say:  "  His 
literary  achievements  are  very  handsome,  and  from  long 
acquaintance  I  am  confident  his  honor  and  integrity  are 
unquestionable."  ^  It  is  also  stated  that  he  had  had  news- 
paper experience  in  Boston,  but  does  not  state  with  whom. 

A  letter  from  Fenno  to  Hamilton  in  November,  1793, 
shows  that,  despite  the  patronage  of  the  Federalists  and 
the  national  administration,  Fenno  was  not  successful, 
for  he  appealed  to  Hamilton  for  a  loan  of  two  thousand 
dollars.  The  reference  to  previous  conferences  over  his 
financial  condition  shows  how  closely  Hamilton  followed 
the  project  and  with  what  interest  he  watched  its  develop- 
ment and  troubles.  Fenno  also  delicately  hints  of  one  or 
two  positions  —  "  berths,"  as  he  calls  them  —  in  the  Bank 
of  the  United  States,  either  of  which,  apparently,  would 
be  acceptable  and  would  help  him  out  of  his  financial  em- 
barrassments.^ 

Hamilton  sent  this  letter  to  Rufus  King  with  a  note 
suggesting  that,  if  the  latter  would  raise  one  thousand  dol- 
lars in  New  York,  he,  Hamilton,  w^ould  raise  a  thousand 
in  Philadelphia.  Apparently  this  was  done,  for  Fenno 
continued  to  defend  the  Federal  party  up  to  the  time  of 
his  death.  That  Hamilton's  father-in-law,  General 
Schuyler,  who  had  already  had  experience  in  newspaper 
financing  in  the  pre-Revolutionary  days,  might  have  been 
induced  to  assist  in  these  practical  financial  details,  it  is 
easy  enough  to  conceive.  There  is  no  doubt  that  Hamil- 
ton w^as  responsible  for  the  paper.  His  method  of  work- 
ing with  editors,  as  we  shall  see  later  in  his  direction  of 
the  New  York  Evening  Post,  w^as  such  that  he  could  easily 
have  controlled  the  paper  without  revealing  his  direct 
interest. 

1  Life  and  Correspoytdence  of  Rufus  King,  i,  357. 
^Ibid,  i,  502. 


156  HISTORY  OF  JOURNALISM 

j^The  Gazette  of  the  United  States  was,  distinctly,  what 
ihose  back  of  it  might  have  called  a  high-class  paper,  per- 
haps a  "  gentlemen's  paper."  It  was  sixpence  a  copy  and 
at  the  very  beginning  was  filled  with  lofty  political 
thoughts  on  government,  a  tone  that  could  have  little 
appeal  to  those  "  mechanics  "  to  whom  it  professed  to 
cater.  It  was  soon  in  full  blast  as  an  organ  of  those 
principles  of  government  which  Hamilton  represented, 
and  which  were  described  by  the  adversaries  of  Hamilton 
as  monarchical,  because  of  his  expressed  belief  that  gov- 
ernment was  best  conducted  when  it  was  not  too  much 
,  subject  to  the  direct  control  of  the  people.. 

The  usual  impression  is  that  party  strife  in  this  coun- 
try began  when  Jefferson  and  Hamilton  clashed,  but  even 
at  this  period,  1788  to  1790,  while  Jefferson  was  abroad, 
Hamilton  was  already  in  a  bitter  political  battle  with 
those  who  represented  more  liberal  ideas  of  government. 
In  this  struggle,  George  Clinton  was  the  leader  of  the 
anti-Hamiltonian  party  in  New  York  State,  the  Daily 
'Advertiser  being  its  chief  organ. 

It  has  been  customary  to  ascribe  to  Jefferson's  sojourn 
in  France  his  democratic  ideas  and  the  democratic  turn 
that  was  given  to  the  anti-Hamiltonian  party.  The  truth 
is,  however,  that  there  was  as  bitter  anti-monarchical 
party  feeling  in  America  before  Jefferson  went  to  France 
or  before  the  French  Revolution,  as  there  was  afterward. 
One  of  the  strongest  exponents  of  this  feeling  was  no  less 
a  person  than  Samuel  Adams,  and  as  he  and  others 
came  to  see  the  weakness  in  Hamilton's  position,  it  was 
on  his  lack  of  faith  in  the  people  that  they  made  their 
attack. 

Jefferson  arrived  in  New  York  on  March  21,  1790, 
and  the  conditions  he  found  there  were,  to  him,  little  less 
than  amazing.     He  was  received  cordially  by  the  Presi- 


GROWTH  OF  PARTY  PRESS  1 57 

dent  and  offered  the  courtesy  of  many  dinner  parties. 
"  But  I  cannot  describe  the  wonder  and  mortification  with 
which  the  table  conversation  filled  me.  Politics  were  the 
chief  topic  and  a  preference  for  kingly  over  republican 
government  was  evidently  the  favorite  sentiment.  An 
apostate  I  could  not  be,  nor  yet  a  hypocrite,  and  I  found 
myself  for  the  most  part  the  only  advocate  on  the  repub- 
lican side  of  the  question,  unless  among  the  guests  there 
chanced  to  be  some  member  of  that  party  from  the  legis- 
lative house."  ' 

During  the  struggle  against  England  before  the  Revo- 
lution, JefTerson  had  always  shown  a  strong  democratic 
inclination.  When  in  France  he  heard  of  the  constitu- 
tion, and  commented  on  its  weakness  in  the  lack  of  a  Bill 
of  Rights.  After  it  was  adopted  he  insisted  that  there 
must  be  amendments  protecting  freedom  of  speech  and 
the  freedom  of  the  press. 

Jefferson's  correspondence  while  abroad  reveals  the 
fact  that  he  had  been  a  careful  student  of  the  newspapers 
and  regarded  them  as  a  potent  factor  in  the  new  kind  of 
government  that  w^as  being  set  up  in  the  United  States. 
Writing  to  Hogendorp  from  Paris,  on  October  13,  1785, 
he  declared  that  ''  the  most  effectual  engines  for  this  pur- 
pose are  the  newspapers,"  referring  to  the  reconciliation 
between  the  British  Government  and  America.  He  ac- 
cused the  British  Government  of  filling  the  newspapers  of 
England  with  paragraphs  against  America,  the  purpose  of 
which  was  two-fold ;  first,  "  to  reconcile  their  own  people 
to  the  defeat  they  had  suffered  and,  second,  to  keep  the 
English  people  from  emigrating  to  America."  * 

The  importance  attached  by  Jefferson  to  the  home  news- 
papers is  shown  in  a  letter  sent  to  Francis  Hopkinson 

3  Randall,  Life  of  Jeiferson,  i,  560. 

*  Writings  of  Jefferson,  Monticello  Edition,  v,  182. 


158  HISTORY  OF  JOURNALISM 

from  Paris,  September  25,  1785,  when  he  states  that  he 
had  asked  for  the  newspapers  to  be  sent  to  him  ''  not- 
withstanding the  expense."  He  discovered,  however, 
that  the  plan  by  which  they  were  sent  was  costing  him 
guineas,  and  he  evolved  the  plan  of  having  them  sent  in 
a  box  to  the  Foreign  Affairs  Office.^ 

Jefferson's  belief  in  journalism  as  a  means  of  estab- 
lishing the  rule  of  public  opinion  is  clearly  expressed  in 
a  letter  to  Colonel  Carrington,  January  16,  1787,  when  he 
said: 

*'  I  am  persuaded  myself  that  the  good  sense  of  the 
people  will  always  be  found  to  be  the  best  army.  They 
may  be  led  astray  for  a  moment,  but  will  soon  correct 
themselves.  The  people  are  the  only  censors  of  their 
governors;  and  even  their  errors  will  tend  to  keep  these 
to  the  true  principles  of  their  institution.  To  punish  these 
errors  too  severely  would  be  to  suppress  the  only  safe- 
guard of  the  public  liberty.  The  way  to  prevent  these 
irregular  interpositions  of  the  people  is  to  give  them  full 
information  of  their  affairs  through  the  channel  of  the 
public  papers,  and  to  contrive  that  those  papers  should 
penetrate  the  whole  mass  of  the  people.  The  basis  of  our 
government  being  the  opinion  of  the  people,  the  very  first 
object  should  be  to  keep  that  right;  and  were  it  left  to  me 
to  decide  whether  we  should  have  a  government  without 
newspapers,  or  newspapers  without  a  government,  I 
should  not  hesitate  a  moment  to  prefer  the  latter.  But  I 
should  mean  that  every  man  should  receive  those  papers, 
and  be  capable  of  reading  them."  ^ 

In  a  letter  written  to  Madison  from  Paris,  July  31, 
1788,  Jefferson  said  that  he  thought  the  new  constitution 
needed  only  a  few  more  retouches  to  make  it  right  —  and 

5  Writings  of  Jefferson,  Monticello  Edition,  v,  150. 

6  Monticello  Edition,  vi,  57,  58. 


GROWTH  OF  PARTY  PRESS  159 

one  of  the  changes  necessary  was  to  guard  the  freedom  of 
the  pressJ 

In  another  letter  to  Madison,  November  18,  1788,  he 
declared  that  the  *'  Federalist  "  was  the  best  commentary 
ever  written  on  the  principles  of  government.'^  His  gen- 
erosity to  Hamilton  is  again  shown  in  his  letter  to  Thomas 
Mann  Randolph,  from  New  York,  May  30,  1790,  in  which 
he  said,  *'  there  is  no  better  book  than  the  Federalist/'  ^ 
Coming  from  a  man  who  differed  from  Hamilton  so  rad- 
ically, this  was  a  strong  statement,  doing  Jefferson  as 
much  credit  as  it  did  Hamilton. 

To  come  back  to  his  own  country  and  find  such  condi- 
tions prevailing  was  to  him  a  great  shock.  When,  in 
addition  to  this,  Fenno's  paper  began  throwing  reserve  to 
the  winds,  it  was  only  natural  that  Jefferson's  acute  mind 
should  see  the  necessity  for  concentrated  effort. 

Despite  the  denials  that  were  maintained  in  after  years 
as  to  the  plans  of  the  Hamilton  party  at  this  particular 
time,  there  is  no  doubt  that  Hamilton  distrusted  the 
masses,  and,  in  his  great  admiration  for  the  British  gov- 
ernment, he  allowed  his  advocates  and  admirers  to  go  to 
an  extreme  that  proved  his  undoing. 

We  may  imagine  the  indignation  of  Jefferson  when  he 
read  in  Fenno's  paper,  a  paper  that  was  admittedly  under 
the  control  of  Hamilton,  such  expressions  as  the  fol- 
lowing : 

*'  Take  away  thrones  and  crowns  from  among  men  and 
there  will  soon  be  an  end  of  all  dominion  and  justice. 
There  must  be  some  adventitious  properties  infused  into 
the  government  to  give  it  energy  and  spirit,  or  the  selfish, 
turbulent  passions  of  men  can  never  be  controlled.  This 
has  occasioned  that  artificial  splendor  and  dignity  that  are 

7  Ibid,  vii,  97.  » Ibid,  viii,  32. 

*Ibid,  vii,  183. 


l6o  HISTORY  OF  JOURNALISM 

to  be  found  in  the  courts  of  many  nations.  The  people 
of  the  United  States  may  probably  be  induced  to  regard 
and  obey  the  laws  without  requiring  the  experiment  of 
courts  and  titled  monarchs.  In  proportion  as  we  become 
populous  and  wealthy  must  the  tone  of  the  government 
be  strengthened."  ^^ 

Against  these  theories  the  Boston  Gazette  and  the  other 
anti-Federalist  papers  were  contenders,  but  nowhere  was 
there  a  more  able  writer  than  the  poet  Freneau,  who  had, 
after  his  arrival  in  New  York  from  Charleston,  estab- 
lished himself  as  a  writer  on  the  Daily  Advertiser.  Here 
he  found,  among  other  old  friends,  James  Madison, 
Henry  B.  Livingston  and  the  brilliant  Aaron  Burr,  with 
whom  he  had  associated  at  Princeton.  The  new  and  in- 
vigorating associations  of  New  York  life  appealed  to  him. 
He  was  soon  friendly  with  the  leading  Democrats,  and  a 
conspicuous  champion  of  Democracy.  On  Jefferson's 
arrival  in  New  York  he  found  these  men  congenial  spir- 
its, and  as  resentful  as  he  of  the  political  theories  of 
Hamilton  and  his  friends.  On  the  Daily  Advertiser  with 
Freneau  was  John  Pintard,  who  was  also  a  translating 
clerk  in  the  Department  of  State. 

..tearly  in  1791  the  seat  of  government  was  moved  to 
Philadelphia,  and  Fenno's  Gazette  of  the  United  States, 
in  accordance  with  its  plans  as  announced  in  the  first  is- 
sue, went  on  with  it  to  that  city.  Pintard  resigned  his 
position  as  translator,  declining  to  leave  New  York  for  a 
yearly  salary  of  two  hundred  and  fifty  dollars,  which  was 
the  appropriation  for  the  place,  and  Madison  and  Henry 
Lee  urged  Jefferson  to  appoint  Freneau  in  Pintard's 
place.  The  necessity  of  having  some  organ  that  would 
reply  to  Fenno's,  as  well  as  a  writer  capable  of  answering 
John  Adams  and  Hamilton,  who  were  both  contributors 

10  Gazette  of  the  United  States,  March,  1790. 


GROWTH  OF  PARTY  PRESS  l6l 

to  Fenno*s  paper,  had  been  considered  by  Jefferson,  Mad- 
ison and  Lee.  These  men  had  come  more  and  more  to 
the  conclusion  that,  in  the  words  of  Gouverneur  Morris, 
"  Hamilton  hated  Republican  government,"  ^^  and  that 
they  must  have  an  active  combatant  in  the  newspaper  field.j 

Jefferson  accordingly  wrote  Freneau  on  February  28, 
1791,  offering  him  the  place,^^  but  Freneau  had  ideas  of 
his  own  and  was  not  inclined  to  go  to  Philadelphia.  In 
the  meantime  Madison  had  urged  the  matter  on  him,  while 
Lee  ^^  had  offered  to  finance  the  paper ;  apparently  their 
arguments  were  conclusive,  for  on  August  16,  1791,  he 
was  appointed  clerk  for  foreign  languages  in  the  office  of 
the  Secretary  of  State.  ^ 

jWhen  he  went  to  Philadelphia,  Freneau  took  his  print- 
ers with  him.  The  plans  and  prospectus  of  the  new 
paper  were  announced,  and  it  appeared  ahead  of  time,  on 
October  31,  1791,  under  the  name  of  the  National  Ga- 
zette. In  its  first  issue  there  was  nothing  of  the  violent 
partisanship  that  was  later  to  distinguish  it,  but  its  col- 
umns were  filled  with  praise  for  Thomas  Paine  and 
Rousseau^'  and  with  essays  on  equality  and  fraternity. 
This  at  once  gave  offense  to  the  Federalists,  who  saw  that 
its  purpose  was  unquestionably  "  to  energize  the  spirit  of 
democracy."  To  assist  in  its  success  Freneau  had  col- 
laborators —  Hugh  Brackenridge,  a  classmate  at  college 
and  afterward  a  distinguished  jurist,  was  a  frequent  con- 
tributor, as  was  also  James  Madison.  Jefferson  himself 
had  it  continually  in  mind.  He  wrote  to  a  friend  about 
it,  solicited  subscriptions,  saw  that  Freneau  had  the  for- 
eign newspapers,  and  did  everything  in  his  power  to  make 
it  a  success,  with  the  result  that,  in  May,  1792,  Freneau 

^1  Sparks,  Gouverneur  Morris,  Life  and  Works,  iii,  260. 

12  See  Appendix. 

13  Parton,  Life  of  Jefferson,  433. 


i62  HISTORY  OF  JOURNALISM 

was  able  to  publish  a  card  stating  that  the  subscriptions 
had  passed  beyond  his  most  sanguine  expectations. 

Jefferson  relied  on  Madison  to  give  Hamilton  fitting  re- 
plies. ''  Hamilton,"  he  wrote,  ''  is  really  a  colossus. 
For  God's  sake,  take  up  your  pen  and  give  him  a  funda- 
mental reply." 

It  was  not,  however,  the  "  fundamental  "  replies  of 
Madison,  but  the  ridicule  and  savage  attacks  of  Freneau 
that  finally  goaded  Hamilton  to  desperation.  Proud  and 
sensitive  as  he  was,  when  he  did  enter  the  arena  it  was 
not  to  break  a  lance  with  Freneau  —  a  common  clerk  in 
the  government  employ,  whom  he  probably  met  every 
day, —  but  to  attack  a  man  who  had,  he  felt,  vitalized  the 
opposition  to  him  and  given  form  and  momentum  to  the 
democratic  movement  now  called  the  Republican  party. 

It  was  in  July,  1792,  that  Hamilton  unadvisedly  rushed 
into  print  under  the  signature  of  T.  L.  attacking  Jeffer- 
son in  this  fashion: 

Mr.  Fenno: 

The  editor  of  the  National  Gazette  receives  a  salary  from  the 
government.  Quaere:  Whether  this  salary  is  paid  for  transla- 
tions or  for  publications  the  design  of  which  is  to  villify  those 
to  whom  the  voice  of  the  people  has  committed  the  administra- 
tion of  our  public  affairs, —  to  oppose  the  measures  of  govern- 
ment and  by  false  insinuation  to  disturb  the  public  peace? 

In  common  life  it  is  thought  ungrateful  for  a  man  to  bite  the 
hand  that  puts  bread  in  his  mouth,  but  if  the  man  is  hired  to 
do  it,  the  case  is  altered. 

T.  L. 

Freneau,  not  realizing  who  his  adversary  was,  boldly 
reprinted  this  attack  and  pointed  out  that  Fenno  was  ob- 
taining from  various  sources  far  more  money  than  his 
(Freneau's)  two  hundred  and  fifty  dollars  a  year  salary. 
In  return  for  this,  he  (Fenno)  was  trying  to  poison  the 
minds  of  the  people  against  democracy  and  Freneau  de- 


GROWTH  OF  PARTY  PRESS  163 

dared  that  the  reader  must  judge  who  was  the  culpable 
man  —  himself  or  Fenno. 

The  answer  to  this  defense  by  Freneau  came  from 
Hamilton,  in  a  letter  signed  "  An  American,"  in  which 
Jefferson  was  directly  attacked.  To  this  Freneau  replied 
by  publishing  an  affidavit,  asserting  that  Jefferson  was 
not  responsible  for  his  paper  nor  had  he  ever  written  a  line 
for  it.  The  fight  was  now  on  in  bitter  earnest.  It  was 
at  this  time  that  Fenno  wrote  to  Hamilton  stating  that  he 
was  in  financial  straits. 

The  bitterness  of  the  fight  between  the  Secretary  of 
State  and  the  Secretary  of  the  Treasury  grew  to  be  so 
uncomfortable  for  the  President,  that  Washington  en- 
deavored to  end  the  bickering  between  the  two  members 
of  his  cabinet,  and  asked  them,  in  the  name  of  their  coun- 
try, to  cease. 

Jefferson's  reply  to  the  President  very  frankly  stated 
his  own  relations  with  Freneau,  and  with  equal  frankness 
expressed  his  belief  that  it  was  a  patriotic  service  to  give 
a  small  position  to  a  man  of  Freneau's  talent,  especially 
when  he  was  so  bitterly  opposed  to  the  dangerous  ideas 
for  which  Fenno  stood.  -^ 

What  made  Jefferson  more  determined  not  to  withdraw 
his  protection  from  Freneau  was  the  fact  that  the  country 
was  responding  to  the  appeals  of  the  National  Gazette. 
Freneau's  paper  had  now  become  the  leading  paper  of 
America,  and  the  humbler  Democratic  sheets  throughout 
the  country,  especially  in  the  south,  looked  to  him  as  to 
an  oracle7\ 


CHAPTER   XII 

THE  EDITOR  AND  THE  GOVERNMENT 

Citizen  Genet  —  Freneau's  espousal  of  his  cause  —  Hamilton 
and  the  "  No  Jacobin "  papers  —  Noah  Webster  and  the 
Minerva  —  William  Cobbett  —  His  attack  on  Callender  — 
Lawsuit  cause  of  his  return  to  England — Benjamin  Franklin 
Bache  —  Criticism  of  Washington  —  Encounter  between 
Fenno  and  Bache  —  President's  farewell  address  —  Bache's 
abusiveness  leads  to  wrecking  of  his  office  —  William  Duane 
and  the  Aurora. 

Such  was  the  condition  in  January,  1793,  when,  as  a 
contemporary  irreverently  put  it,  "  Louis  Capet  lost  his 
caput "  and  France  became  a  republic.  Citizen  Genet, 
ambassador  of  the  new  government,  arrived  in  this  coun- 
try and  brought  with  him  a  new  issue  —  Genet  expected 
America  to  declare  war  on  England.  The  people  were, 
to  a  large  extent,  in  sympathy  with  France,  and  Freneau, 
to  whose  republican  heart  the  French  cause  was  dear  — 
moreover,  he  was  a  Frenchman  by  descent  —  espoused  the 
cause  of  Genet  most  fervently.  Genet's  actions,  however, 
brought  down  on  him  the  disapproval  of  the  administra- 
tion and  aroused  against  him  the  Hamilton  party.  Pres- 
ident Washington  decided  that  this  was  no  time  for  grati- 
tude, and  by  proclamation  called  for  a  neutral  course. 
The  friends  of  Genet  and  of  republican  France  bitterly 
protested  and  Freneau  openly  addressed  the  President. 

"  Sir,"  said  the  editor  to  the  President,  ''  Sir,  let  not, 

I  beseech  you,  the  opiate  of  sycophancy,  administered 

by  interested  and  designing  men,  lull  you  into   fatal 

164 


THE  EDITOR  AND  THE  GOVERNMENT        165 

lethargy  at  this  awful  moment.  Consider  that  a  first 
magistrate  in  every  country  is  no  other  than  a  public  serv- 
ant whose  conduct  is  to  be  governed  by  the  will  of  the 
people/*  ^ 

Nor  did  Freneau  stop  there;  he  defended  Genet  against 
the  President :  "  Why  all  this  outcry,"  he  asked,  "  against 
Mr.  Genet,  for  saying  he  would  appeal  to  the  people?  Is 
the  President  a  consecrated  character  that  an  appeal  from 
him  must  be  considered  criminal?  What  is  the  legisla- 
ture of  the  union  but  the  people  in  congress  assembled? 
And  is  it  an  affront  to  appeal  to  them?  The  minister  of 
France,  I  hope,  will  act  with  firmness  and  with  spirit. 
The  people  are  his  friends,  or  rather  the  friends  of  France, 
and  he  will  have  nothing  to  apprehend,  for  as  yet  the 
people  are  sovereign  in  the  United  States.  Too  much 
complacency  is  an  injury  done  his  cause,  for  as  every  ad- 
vantage is  already  taken  of  France  (not  by  the  people) 
further  condescension  may  lead  to  further  abuse.  If  one 
of  the  leading  features  of  our  government  is  pusillanimity, 
when  the  British  lion  shows  his  teeth,  let  France  and  her 
minister  act  as  becomes  the  dignity  and  justice  of  their 
cause  and  the  honor  and  faith  of  nations."  ^ 

This  effrontery  led  Washington  to  send  for  Jefferson 
and  practically  to  demand  that  Freneau  be  dismissed  from 
the  State  Department.  It  was  then  that  Washington  de- 
clared that  "  that  rascal  Freneau  "  had  been  trying  to  use 
him  as  a  distributing  agent  for  his  newspaper  by  sending 
him  three  copies  every  day,  and  that  he  (Washington) 
*'  would  rather  be  on  his  farm  than  be  made  emperor  of 
the  world." 

After  his  interview  with  the  President,  Jefferson  re- 
corded in  his  Anas  his  own  impressions.     Written  for 

1  National  Gazette,  June,  1793. 
*  National  Gazette,  July,  1793. 


l66  HISTORY  OF  JOURNALISM 

posterity,  it  is  an  interesting  picture  of  the  Father  of  the 
Country,  affords  a  pleasant  view  of  the  writer  and  is  no 
mean  tribute  to  Freneau. 

The  President,  he  tells  us,  brought  up  the  subject  of 
Freneau' s  attack  on  him,  declaring  that  there  had  never 
been  an  act  of  the  government  that  the  editor  had  not 
abused. 

"  He  was  evidently  sore  and  warm,*'  he  goes  on,  '*  and 
I  took  his  intention  to  be  that  I  should  interpose  in  some 
way  with  Freneau,  perhaps  withdraw  his  appointment  of 
translating  clerk  to  my  office.  But  I  will  not  do  it.  His 
paper  has  saved  our  Constitution,  which  was  galloping 
fast  into  monarchy,  and  has  been  checked  by  no  one  means 
so  powerfully  as  by  that  paper.  It  is  well  and  univer- 
sally known,  that  it  has  been  that  paper  which  has  checked 
the  career  of  the  monocrats ;  and  the  President,  not  sen- 
sible to  the  designs  of  the  party,  has  not  with  his  usual 
good  sense  and  sangfroid,  looked  on  the  efforts  and  ef- 
fects of  this  free  press,  and  seen  that,  though  some  bad 
things  have  passed  through  it  to  the  public,  yet  the  good 
have  preponderated  immensely."  ^ 

To  answer  Genet's  appeal  to  the  people  against  the 
government,  and  the  Republican  editors  who  were  sup- 
porting him,  Hamilton  took  up  his  pen  and  addressed  the 
public  in  the  papers,  signed  ''  No  Jacobin,"  which  ap- 
peared first  in  the  Daily  Advertiser  and  were  reprinted 
by  Fenno.  No  matter  how  strong  the  sympathy  of  the 
people  for  France,  or  how  great  their  gratitude,  they 
realized  the  justice  of  Hamilton's  statement  in  his  initial 
paper  that  the  minister  of  a  foreign  country  has  no  right 
to  appeal  over  the  head  of  the  President.  The  govern- 
ment tolerated  Genet's  impudence  as  long  as  possible  and 
then  demanded  his  recall,  the  attitude  of  Washington  and 

®  Jefferson's  Works,  i,  353. 


THE  EDITOR  AND  THE  GOVERNMENT        167 

the  arguments  of  Hamilton  having  finally  brought  public 
opinion  around  to  the  administration. 

Not  content  with  the  Gazette  of  the  United  States  and 
Fenno's  efforts  —  which  from  Fenno's  own  description 
and  his  appeal  to  Hamilton  for  financial  assistance,  had 
evidently  not  been  as  successful  as  the  party  leaders  wished 
—  Hamilton  and  his  friends  established  another  paper, 
this  time  in  New  York,  under  the  editorship  of  Noah 
Webster,  afterward  distinguished  as  the  lexicographer. 
Webster  was  already  prominent  in  his  home  state,  Con- 
necticut, having  contributed  letters,  the  forerunners  of 
editorials,  to  the  Connecticut  Coiirant  as  early  as  1780. 
During  the  vigorous  debate  over  the  adoption  of  the  con- 
stitution he  had  been  one  of  the  conspicuous  journalistic 
proponents  of  Federalism.  He  was  a  man  of  learning 
and  of  great  industry,  but  narrow-minded  and  exceed- 
ingly vain.  He  believed  that  he  was  responsible  for  the 
adoption  of  the  Constitution.  On  the  other  hand,  his 
work  as  a  teacher  and  his  campaign  on  behalf  of  the  copy- 
right law  had  made  him  a  conspicuous  person,  and  when 
he  visited  New  York  in  August,  1793,  an  offer  was  made 
to  him  to  establish  a  paper,  the  capital  for  which  was  pro- 
vided by  Hamilton  and  King,  among  others.*  -^ 

As  he  was,  with  the  members  of  the  Federal  party, 
ardently  attached  to  Washington,  Webster  accepted  the 
invitation,  and  the  result  was  the  appearance,  in  1793, 
of  the  American  Minerva,  afterward  to  be  the  Neiv  York 
Commercial  Advertiser,  now  the  Globe  —  the  oldest  pa- 
per in  New  York  City.  To  Webster  was  due  the  intro- 
duction of  the  economical  device  of  setting  up  a  subsid- 
iary paper,  which  he  called  the  Herald,  issued  semi- 
weekly.  It  was  made  up  entirely  from  the  columns  of 
the  Minerva  without  recomposition. 

•*  Scudder,  Noah   Webster. 


l68  HISTORY  OF  JOURNALISM 

The  next  political  division  in  the  country  came  over 
the  treaty  with  England,  negotiated  by  John  Jay.  The 
Republicans  were  quick  to  see  the  unpopukrity  of  this 
document,  which  Washington  had  ratified  in  August, 
1795.  Practically  every  paper  in  the  country  teemed  with 
letters  or  long  series  of  essays  denouncing  or  defending 
the  instrument;  chief  of  these  was  Hamilton's  series  of 
thirty-eight  newspaper  articles,  signed  "  Camillus,"  which 
were  printed  in  Noah  Webster's  Minerva.  Some  of 
these  were  written,  it  is  said,  by  Rufus  King  and  John 

Jay. 

But  the  strongest  journalistic  protagonist  of  Federal- 
ism was  William  Cobbett,  afterward  to  be  famous  in 
England  as  writer  and  reformer, —  a  man  of  little  educa- 
tion but  undoubted  genius.  In  1794  he  landed  in  New 
York,  without  friends;  from  there  he  went  to  Philadel- 
phia, where  —  apropos  of  the  arrival  in  this  country  of 
Dr.  Joseph  Priestley,  who,  on  account  of  his  criticism  of 
church  and  state,  had  found  England  an  uncomfortable 
place,  and  had  emigrated  to  America, —  the  democratic 
newspapers  were  making  vicious  attacks  on  England. 
Cobbett,  who  had  had  some  slight  experience  in  pamphlet- 
eering, attacked  Priestley  and  the  haters  of  England  in 
such  vicious  form  as  to  warm  the  hearts  of  the  Federal- 
ists. 

It  has  been  pointed  out  by  a  biographer  of  Cobbett  ^ 
that  it  was  the  repressive  measures  of  Pitt  in  1794,  with 
frequent  trials  for  sedition,  that  drove  many  Englishmen 
to  America.  Regarding  Philadelphia  as  the  most  liberal 
and  philosophic  city  in  the  United  States,  these  men  made 
their  homes  there,  and  at  the  same  time  helped  to  make 
that  city  and  the  entire  commonwealth  of  Pennsylvania  a 
hotbed  of  democracy. 
5  Smith,  William  Cobbett,  1,  130. 


THE  EDITOR  AND  THE  GOVERNMENT        1 69 

James  T.  Callender,  later  to  become  a  storm-center  in 
American  politics,  was  one  of  these  emigrants.  He  had 
attacked  the  Pitt  administration  for  its  political  injus- 
tices, in  a  pamphlet  entitled,  "  The  Political  Progress  of 
Britain."  Cobbett,  having  had  some  success  with  his  at- 
tack on  Priestley,  turned  his  attention  to  Callender  with 
equal  success.  This  endeavor  resulted  in  his  being  lik- 
ened to  a  porcupine,  and  from  that  time  on  Cobbett 
signed  himself  "  Peter  Porcupine."  For  a  while  his 
writings  were  printed  as  a  series  in  The  Political  Cen- 
sor,  eight  numbers  of  which  had  appeared  up  to  Janu- 
ary, 1797.  On  March  4,  1797,  he  brought  out  the  first 
number  of  Porcupine's  Gazette  and  Daily  Advertiser, 
and  for  the  next  two  years  he  was  actively  engaged  in 
defending  himself  and  his  paper  and  attacking  those 
who  were  against  the  English  cause  and  the  Federal 
party. 

The  virulence  with  which  Cobbett  attacked  his  oppo- 
nents, and  his  vituperation  of  the  French  people  and 
French  admirers,  occasioned  so  much  scandal  that  it  was 
said  that  John  Adams  had  resolved  to  order  him  to  leave 
the  United  States,  under  the  provisions  of  the  Alien  Act 
—  strong  Federalist  though  Adams  himself  was.  The 
remonstrance  of  the  Attorney-General  prevented  this  ac- 
tion, but  Cobbett  decided  to  return  without  such  a  man- 
date, and  secretly  sold  his  property.^  In  the  end,  how- 
ever, it  was  a  private  lawsuit  that  resulted  in  his  leaving 
Philadelphia, —  Dr.  Benjamin  Rush,  a  famous  physician 
and  politician  of  Pennsylvania,  having  received  a  verdict 
of  $5,000  damages  for  a  libelous  statement  against  him. 
Porcupine's  Gazette  was  suspended  in  consequence  of  this 
verdict,  and  the  following  year  Cobbett  sailed  for  Eng- 
land, leaving  behind  him  as  a  legacy  all  his  virulence  and 

^  E.  I.  Carlyle,  William  Cobbett,  69. 


lyo  HISTORY  OF  JOURNALISM 

vituperative  style,  which  for  years  was  imitated  by  the 
American  press. 

Considering  ttte  briefness  of  his  sojourn  in  this  coun- 
try and  the  short  time  that  he  was  identified  with  Amer- 
ican poHtics  and  journahsm,  Cobbett  made,  as  Henry 
Cabot  Lodge  has  pointed  out,  a  great  and  lasting  impres- 
sion/ Not  only  was  he  one  of  the  founders  of  our  party 
press,  but  he  was,  as  Senator  Lodge  says,  "  the  ablest  " 
of  them  —  certainly  the  most  vituperative.  He  had  a 
vigorous  and'impulsive,  but  a  half -educated,  mind.  This 
was  to  be  to  a  large  extent  characteristic  of  many  of  the 
forceful  figures  who,  in  the  development  of  journalism  in 
the  new  country  during  the  next  fifty  years,  were  destined 
to  be  the  pioneers  in  America  not  only  of  journalism  but 
of  the  country  itself. 

The  Genet  incident  brought  to  the  front  another  vig- 
orous anti-Federalist  editor,  Benjamin  Franklin  Bache, 
the  grandson  of  Benjamin  Franklin.  As  a  boy  Bache  had 
traveled  with  his  grandfather  to  Paris,  and  had  been 
educated  in  France  and  at  Geneva.  He  gained  some 
knowledge  of  printing  in  the  house  of  Didot  in  Paris, 
came  back  with  his  grandfather  to  America  in  1785,  fin- 
ished his  college  studies  in  Philadelphia,  and,  on  the  first 
of  October,  1790,  appeared  as  a  full-fledged  publisher  and 
editor  on  the  General  Advertiser.  It  was  not  so  much 
under  this  title  as  under  the  title  of  Aurora  —  which  was 
assumed  in  November,  1794  —  that  the  paper  became  a 
bitter  and  vigorous  opponent  of  Hamilton  and  the  Fed- 
eralists. 

With  the  breaking  out  of  the  French  Revolution, 
Bache's  pro-French  sympathies  were  given  full  play,  and 
the  French  ambassador.  Genet,  had  no  more  vigorous 
defender  than  Bache.     Whatever  of  restraint  there  had 

T  Studies  in  History,  no. 


THE  EDITOR  AND  THE  GOVERNMENT        17 1 

been  up  to  this  time,  with  regard  to  attacking  Washing- 
ton himself,  was  disappearing,  but  it  remained  for  Bache 
to  assail  the  Father  of  his  Country  1h  most  vitriolic 
fashion.  He  even  went  so  far  in  the  Aiirora  that  when 
the  song,  ''  Hail,  Columbia,''  which  had  just  been  written 
to  the  tune  of  "  The  President's  March,",  was  sung  at  a 
theater  in  Philadelphia,  he  declared  it  to  be  *'  the  most 
ridiculous  bombast  and  the  vilest  adulation  of  the  Anglo- 
Monarchical  party."  ^ 

Bache's  denunciation  of  the  song  "  Hail,  Columbia  " 
may  possibly  be  traced  to  the  fact  that  the  air  had  been 
composed  as  a  tribute  to  Washington  by  Pfyjes^the  leader 
of  the  few  violins  and  drums  that  passed  for  ar^orchestra 
at  the  one  theater  in  New  York,  and  had  been  played  for 
the  first  time  when  Washington  rode  over  Trenton  Bridge 
on  his  way  to  New  York  to  be  inaugurated.^  On  the 
frequent  occasions  when  Washington  attended  the  the- 
ater in  New  York,  during  the  time  that  the  seat  of  gov- 
ernment was  in  that  city,  it  was  always  played  on  his  en- 
trance. To  the  irate  democrats  it  was  too  reminiscent  of 
monarchical  ceremony,  and  the  respect,  shown  by  the 
spectators'  rising  from  their  seats,  irritated  them. 

Bache's  feeling  against  the  Federalists  was  not  lessened 
by  an  incident  which  occurred  in  the  spring  of  1797.  He 
had  gone  down  to  witness  the  completion  of  the  frigate 
United  States,  the  first  naval  vessel  constructed  by  the 
government  under  the  Constitution,  and  had  been  set  upon 
and  beaten  by  the  son  of  the  builder;  the  chastisement  be- 
ing, he  was  given  to  understand,  a  punishment  for  his 
newspaper  abuse  of  Washington  and  the  government  in 
general.  The  assault  on  Bache  was,  to  the  Federalists,  a 
source  of  almost  equal  jubilation  with  that  caused  by  the 

*  Scharf  and  Westcott,  History  of  Philadelphia,  i,  493. 

®  McMaster,  History  of  the  People  of  the  United  States,  i,  565. 


172  HISTORY  OF  JOURNALISM 

successful  launching,  and  it  was  especially  pleasing  to 
"  Peter  Porcupine."  ^^ 

So  bitter  did  the  controversy  now  become  that  personal 
affrays  resulted  both  in  and  out  of  Congress.  Fenno 
having  charged  Bache  with  being  in  the  pay  of  France, 
Bache  retorted  that  Fenno  had  sold  out  to  the  British. 
The  son  of  Fenno  called  on  Bache  and  demanded  the 
name  of  the  author  of  the  attack  on  his  father.  Bache 
told  the  young  man  to  send  his  father  to  ask  his  own 
questions.  The  next  day  the  two  editors  met  on  Fourth 
Street  and,  when  Fenno  attacked  Bache,  Bache  hit  him 
over  the  head  with  his  cane.  Bache  states  that,  after 
they  had  been  separated,  as  he  "  stooped  to  pick  up  his 
comb,"  Fenno  retreated.^ ^ 

In  the  midst  of  this  bitter  controversy  came  the  an- 
nouncement of  George  Washington's  intention  to  give 
up  public  life  at  the  close  of  his  presidential  term.  On 
September  19,  1796,  his  Farewell  Address  was  printed  in 
Dunlap  and  Claypoole's  Daily  Advertiser. 

It  was  not  until  years  later  that  the  facts  were  made 
public  as  to  how  this  particular  journal  came  to  be  the  one 
selected  by  the  President  for  his  historic  announcement. 
Several  days  before  it  was  printed  he  sent  for  Claypoole, 
the  editor  of  the  Daily  Advertiser,  and  informed  him  that 
he  had  for  some  time  past  contemplated  retiring  from 
public  life,  but  had  "  some  thoughts  and  reflections  upon 
the  occasion,  which  he  deemed  proper  to  communicate  to 
the  people  of  the  United  States,  in  the  form  of  an  ad- 
dress, and  which  he  wished  to  appear  in  the  Daily  Adver- 
tiser/^ Claypoole's  account  of  the  matter  is  given  in  his 
own  words : 

"  He  paused,  and  I  took  the  opportunity  of  thanking 

10  McMaster,  ii,  323,  and  Aurora,  April,  1797. 

11  Scharf  and  Wcstcott,  i,  495. 


THE  EDITOR  AND  THE  GOVERNMENT        173 

him  for  having  preferred  that  paper  as  the  channel  of  his 
communication  with  the  people  —  especially  as  I  viewed 
this  selection  as  indicating  his  approbation  of  the  prin- 
ciples and  manner  in  which  the  work  was  conducted.  He 
silently  assented,  and  asked  when  the  pubHcation  could 
be  made.  I  answered  that  the  time  should  be  made  per- 
fectly convenient  to  himself,  and  the  following  Monday 
was  fixed  upon.  He  then  told  me  that  his  secretary  would 
call  on  me  with  a  copy  of  the  address  on  the  next  Friday 
morning  and  I  withdrew. 

'*  After  the  proof  sheet  had  been  compared  with  the 
copy,  and  corrected  by  myself,  I  carried  another  proof, 
and  then  a  revise,  to  be  examined  by  the  President,  who 
made  but  a  few  alterations  from  the  original,  except  in 
the  punctuation,  in  which  he  was  very  minute. 

"  The  publication  of  the  address  —  dated  *  United 
States,  September  17,  1796'  —  being  completed  on  the 
19th,  I  waited  on  the  President  with  the  original,  and  in 
presenting  it  to  him  expressed  my  regret  at  parting  with 
it,  and  how  much  I  should  be  gratified  by  being  permitted 
to  retain  it.  Upon  which  in  an  obliging  manner,  he 
handed  it  back  to  me,  saying  that,  if  I  wished  for  it  I 
might  keep  it;  and  I  then  took  my  leave  of  him."  ^^ 

The  stepping  down  of  Washington  from  the  seat  of 
power  let  loose  the  political  furies.  Freneau  having  re- 
tired, Bache  had  become  the  chief  Republican  editor. 
In  the  Aurora  he  went  as  far  as  a  critic  could  possibly  go : 

"If  ever  a  nation  was  debauched  by  a  man,  the  Ameri- 
can nation  has  been  debauched  by  Washington.  If  ever 
a  nation  was  deceived  by  a  man,  the  American  nation  has 
been  deceived  by  Washington.     Let  his  conduct,  then, 

12  Memoirs  Pennsylvania  Historical  Society,  1864,  reprint  of  edi- 
tion of  1826,  265.  The  original  **copy"  is  now  in  the  New  York 
Public  Library. 


174  HISTORY  OF  JOURNALISM 

be  an  example  to  future  ages ;  let  it  serve  to  be  a  warning 
that  no  man  may  be  an  idol;  let  the  history  of  the  Fed- 
eral Government  instruct  mankind  that  the^mask  of  pa- 
triotism may  be  worn  to  conceal  the  foulest  designs 
against  the  liberties  of  the  people."  ^^ 

There  was  scarcely  a  limit  to  the  abuse  that  was  heaped 
on  him,  the  Boston  Gazette  —  of  December  26,  1796, 
January  16,  1797,  and  February  13,  1797  —  continuing 
to  pile  obloquy  on  the  great  Father  of  his  Country. 

"If  ever  there  was  a  period  of  rejoicing,"  the  Aurora 
declared  on  March  6,  1797,  "  this  is  the  moment.  Every 
heart,  in  unison  with  the  freedom  and  happiness  of  the 
people,  ought  to  beat  high  with  exultation  that  the  name 
of  Washington  ceases  from  this  day  to  give  currency  to 
political  iniquity  and  to  legalize  corruption." 

The  indignation  of  the  people  at  this  attack  led  some 
of  the  veterans  of  Washington's  army  to  march  to  the 
office  of  the  Aurora  and  break  into  the  place,  very  nearly 
demolishing  it.^* 

After  such  a  tirade  it  was  more  or  less  to  be  expected 
that  Adams  would  at  least  have  a  reasonably  respectful 
reception  when  he  assumed  office.  The  Republican  pa- 
pers hailed  with  delight  his  declaration  in  favor  of  popu- 
lar government,  pretending  to  believe  that  it  came  to  them 
as  a  surprise.  Within  a  few  months,  however,  a  speech 
on  French  affairs  was  so  distasteful  to  them  that  they 
began  abusing  him  with  the  same  degree  of  enthusiasm 
with  which  they  had  attacked  Washington. 

The  bitterness  between  the  two  factions  was  checked 
for  a  short  time  by  a  power  before  which  both  had  to 
bow.  In  the  early  summer  and  fall  of  1798  there  was  a 
recurrence  of  yellow  fever  in  which  the  newspaper  offices 

13  December  2^,  1796. 
"^^  Aurora ,  March,  1797. 


THE  EDITOR  AND  THE  GOVERNMENT        175 

of  the  city  suffered  severely,  losing  in  all  sixty-two  per- 
sons, among  them  being  both  Fenno  and  Bache.  The 
death  of  the  latter  brought  to  the  front  William  Duane, 
one  of  the  most  powerful  of  the  early  political  editors. 

Duane  was  born  in  the  northern  part  of  New  York,  in 
1760.  His  father  died  shortly  after.  His  mother,  after 
trying  to  live  in  Philadelphia  and  Baltimore,  had  gone  to 
Ireland.  A  dispute  with  his  mother  over  his  marriage  — 
she  was  a  woman  in  comfortable  circumstances  —  led  to 
his  determining  to  learn  some  business  as  a  means  of  live- 
lihood, and  he  turned  to  printing.  After  working  for  a 
while  in  London  he  went  to  Calcutta,  and  there  published 
a  newspaper  which  for  a  while  was  very  successful.  A 
bold  criticism  of  the  East  India  Company,  however,  led 
to  his  being  forcibly  put  aboard  ship  and  sent  to  England, 
while  his  property  in  India  was  confiscated.  For 
some  time  he  was  a  parliamentary  reporter  for  the  Gen- 
eral Advertiser  of  London,  now  known  as  the  London 
Times,  but  the  refusal  on  the  part  of  the  authorities  to 
take  any  interest  in  his  ill-treatment  in  India  so  disgusted 
him  that  he  finally  determined  to  return  to  the  United 
States;  he  arrived  here  in  1796.  He  obtained  employ- 
ment as  one  of  the  editors  of  the  Aurora,  and  after  Bache's 
death  conducted  the  paper  for  the  widow,  whom  he  later 
married. 

It  was  against  Duane  as  much  as  any  single  individual 
that  the  Alien  and  Sedition  laws  were  directed  by  the 
Adams  Administration,  a  fact  that  makes  Duane  a  singu- 
larly interesting  person,  as  the  passage  and  enforcement 
of  those  laws  led  to  John  Adams'  retirement  to  private 
life  and  contributed  more  than  any  other  event  to  the 
passing  of  the  Federalist  party. 


CHAPTER    XIII 

ADAMS  AND  THE  ALIEN  AND  SEDITION  LAWS 

Attitude  of  the  new  President  —  The  control  of  the  press  —  Op- 
pressive laws  —  Severity  of  penalties  provided  for  violation 
—  The  President's  responsibility  —  Trial  of  Duane  —  Dr. 
Thomas  Cooper  —  His  Defense  —  Duane's  later  history  — 
The  Boston  Chronicle  indicted  —  Laws  defended  by  Oliver 
Wolcott. 

Having  followed  the  career  of  John  Adams  in  the  pre- 
Revolutionary  days,  when,  with  Sam  Adams,  he  made 
the  Boston  Gazette  the  official  organ  of  the  patriots,  the 
student  of  journalism  might  well  expect  that  his  adminis- 
tration of  the  office  of  President  of  the  United  States 
would  be  marked  with  a  distinctive  course  in  the  matter 
of  the  Fourth  Estate.  And  so  it  was,  for  in  the  second 
year  of  his  term  there  were  passed  laws,  intended  to 
shackle  the  press  and  oppress  the  editors,  that  aroused  a 
spirit  of  indignation  that  contributed  not  only  to  his  own 
downfall  but  to  the  extinction  of  his  party. 

To  understand  the  character  of  Adams,  we  must  re- 
call that,  even  at  the  time  when  the  Massachusetts  Spy 
and  the  Boston  Gazette  were  vigorously  fighting  in  the 
cause  of  the  Revolutionists,  he  was  not  the  exponent  of 
an  entirely  unshackled  press.  In  one  of  his  interesting 
and  most  illuminating  letters,  written  at  that  time  to  his 
•wife,  he  declared  that  it  was  a  pity  that  the  papers  were 
not  more  guided  and  controlled.  Even  then  he  over- 
looked the  fact  that  the  fight  for  independence  was  a  fight 
against  that  very  guidance  and  control,  the  absence  of 

176 


ADAMS  AND  THE  ALIEN  AND  SEDITION  LAWS     1 77 

which  he  lamented.  In  this  casual  expression  one  sees 
the  germ  of  the  Alien  and  Sedition  Laws  which  brought 
about  his  downfall. 

It  has  been  said  in  his  defense  —  in  fact,  it  was  said  by 
Adams  himself  —  that  these  notorious  laws  originated 
not  with  him  but  with  Hamilton  and  his  friends.  How- 
ever true  this  may  be,  they  could  never  have  been  the 
laws  of  the  land,  had  it  not  been  for  Adams.  The  fact 
is  that  this  famous  legislation  grew  out  of  the  failure  of 
Adams  and  other  Federalists  to  properly  understand  pub- 
lic sentiment. 

The  exposure  of  the  famous  X.  Y.  Z.  dispatches,  show- 
ing an  attempt  on  the  part  of  Talleyrand  and  his  friends 
in  Paris  to  hold  up  the  ambassador  of  this  government 
for  money,  brought  to  Adams  and  the  Federalists  strong 
popular  support  in  1798,  and  turned  national  sympathy 
away  from  the  French  party.  Republicanism  was  at  its 
ebb;  New  England  was  carried  in  phalanx  by  the  Fed- 
eral Americans,  as  they  called  themselves,  and  John  Jay 
was  re-elected  governor  of  New  York  by  more  than  2,000 
votes  over  Livingston.  Newspapers  that  had  been  neu- 
tral began  to  support  the  administration,  while  the  Aurora 
and  other  strong  Republican  papers  suffered  heavily  in 
circulation.^ 

For  a  brief  time  Adams  was  the  hero  of  the  hour.  It 
was  then,  in  what  now  seems  a  moment  of  madness,  that 
the  Federalist  leaders  conceived  the  Alien  and  Sedition 
acts  —  aimed,  because  of  the  unpopularity  of  France, 
against  French  ideas,  and  particularly  at  "  Popular  Lib- 
erty and  free  speech."  ^ 

Jefferson,  from  the  vantage  ground  of  the  Vice-presi- 
dency, was  closely  watching  his  opponents  in  their  hour  of 

1  Schouler,  History  of  the  United  States,  i,  400. 
^Ibid,  404. 


178  HISTORY  OF  JOURNALISM 

triumph.  To  Madison  he  sent  word  that  this  onslaught 
on  the  principles  he  held  dear  was  about  to  occur. 

"  One  of  the  war  party/'  he  wrote,  "  in  a  fit  of  un- 
guarded passion,  declared  some  time  ago  that  they  would 
pass  the  Citizens'  Bill,  the  Alien  Bill  and  a  Sedition  Bill. 
Accordingly,  some  days  ago  Cort  laid  a  motion  on  the 
table  of  the  House  of  Representatives  for  modifying  the 
Citizen  Law.  Other  threats  pointed  at  Gallatin,  and  it  is 
believed  they  will  endeavor  to  reach  him  by  this  bill. 
Yesterday,  Hillhouse  laid  on  the  table  of  the  Senate  a 
motion  for  giving  power  to  send  away  suspected  aliens. 
.  .  .  There  is  now  only  wanting  to  accomplish  the  whole 
declaration  before  mentioned,  the  Sedition  bill,  which 
we  shall  certainly  soon  see  proposed.  The  object  of  that 
is  the  suppression  of  the  Whig  press.  Bache  has  been 
particularly  named.'* 

The  Alien  act,  which  has  been  characterized  as  "  with- 
out parallel  in  American  legislation,"  permitted  the  Pres- 
ident to  order  out  of  the  country  all  such  aliens  as  he 
should  deem  "  dangerous  to  the  peace  and  safety  of  the 
United  States."  Any  alien  who  was  found  in  the  coun- 
try after  receiving  such  an  order  was  liable  to  imprison- 
ment for  three  years.  * 

The  Sedition  act  of  July  14,  1798,  made  it  a  high  mis- 
demeanor, punishable  by  a  fine  of  $5,000  and  five  years' 
imprisonment,  for  persons  to  unlawfully  combine  or  con- 
spire against  the  government,  or  to  write,  print,  publish 
or  quote  any  false  scandal  or  scurrilous  writings  against 
the  government  of  the  United  States,  the  President  or 
either  House  of  Congress.  Through  the  efforts  of  Bay- 
ard, a  Federalist  at  that,  an  amendment  was  added, 
amending  the  common  law  of  libel  by  permitting  the 
truth  of  the  matter  contained  in  the  publication  to  be 
given  In  evidence  as  a  good  defense.     It  will  be  recalled 


ADAMS  AND  THE  ALIEN  AND  SEDITION  LAWS     179 

that  this  contention,  revolutionary  in  law,  was  first  made 
in  this  country  by  Andrew  Hamilton  at  the  trial  of  John 
Peter  Zenger.  But  at  the  time  that  this  amendment  was 
put  on  the'books  of  the  United  States  Government,  it  was 
accepted  in  only  two  states,  and  it  was  not  until  after 
Alexander  Hamilton's  own  great  defense  of  Harry  Cros- 
well,  as  we  shall  see  later,  that,  by  enactment  of  the  Leg- 
islature, such  a  defense  was  made  possible  in  the  State  of 
New  York. 

The  historian  Schouler  calls  attention  to  the  fact  that 
the  Alien  and  Sedition  acts,  "  born  in  a  single  session," 
were  not  passed  iri  the  midst  of  fierce  revolution  nor 
while  the  country  was  in  any  great  danger.  The  law- 
makers were  animated,  unquestionably,  by  a  spirit  of 
revenge  and  a  desire  to  suppress  and  intimidate  those 
newspapers  and  writers  who  had  in  the  past  subjected 
them  to  forceful,  vigorous  criticism.^ 

It  is  true  that  the  press  tended  toward  coarseness  and 
sometimes  indecency,  but  the  Jefifersonian  press  had  no 
monopoly  of  either.  In  fact,  no  one  then  writing  could 
compare  with  Cobbett  in  either  bitterness  or  vulgarity. 
There  is  no  doubt  that  many  of  the  leading  editors  had 
been  exiled  from  foreign  couhtries,  and  the  scurrility 
with  which  they  handled  one  another  was  such  that  at 
the  seat  of  government  ''  hardly  a  week  passed  without  a 
scuffle  in  which  one  at  least  of  the  leading  editors  was 
concerned."  * 

What  particularly  enraged  the  Republicans  when  the 
laws  were  passed,  was  the  fact  that  the  juries  summoned 
by  the  marshal  were  all  Federalists,  and  only  Federalists 
were  selected  to  try  those  who  were  indicted.  Ten  Re- 
publican editors  and  printers  were  tried  and  convicted 

3  History  of  the  United  States,  i,  411. 
*  Wharton,  State  Trials,  23. 


i8o  HISTORY  OF  JOURNALISM 

under  the  Sedition  act,  and  many  others  were  tried  but 
not  convicted.^ 

It  is  stated,  and  doubtless  the  statement  is  true,  that 
"  Mr.  Adams'  participation  respective  to  the  AHen  and 
Sedition  laws  was  confined  to  his  official  act  of  signa- 
ture." ^  But  this  in  no  way  excuses  him,  for  by  his  very 
signature  he  made  the  acts  his  own.  Had  his  previous 
utterances  been  of  a  more  democratic  nature,  it  would  not 
have  been  possible  to  have  fastened  on  him  the  odium 
for  this  political  mistake.  Moreover,  his  active  interest 
in  prosecutions  under  the  Alien  and  Sedition  acts  shows 
that  he  welcomed  this  unpopular  legislation.  It  was  to 
him  that  Pickering,  the  Secretary  of  State,  gave  a  thor- 
oughly Federalist  description  of  Duane. 

"  The  editor  of  the  Aurora,  William  Duane,"  he  wrote 
to  the  President,  "  pretends  that  he  is  an  American  Citi- 
zen, saying  that  he  was  born  in  Vermont,  but  was,  when 
a  child,  taken  back  with  his  parents  to  Ireland,  where 
he  was  educated.  But  I  understand  the  facts  to  be,  that 
he  went  from  America  prior  to  our  revolution,  remaining 
in  the  British  dominions  till  after  the  peace,  went  to  the 
British  East  Indies,  where  he  committed  or  was  charged 
with  some  crime,  and  returned  to  Great  Britain,  from 
whence,  within  three  or  four  years  past,  he  came  to  this 
country  to  stir  up  sedition  and  work  other  mischief.  I 
presume,  therefore,  that  he  is  really  a  British  subject,  and, 
as  an  alien,  liable  to  be  banished  from  the  United  States. 
He  has  lately  set  himself  up  to  be  the  captain  of  a  com- 
pany of  volunteers,  whose  distinguishing  badges  are  a 
plume  of  cock-neck  feathers  and  a  small  black  cockade 
with  a  large  eagle.  He  is  doubtless  a  United  Irishman, 
and  the  company  is  probably  formed  to  oppose  the  au- 

^  Bassett,  Federalist  System,  264. 
®  Works  of  John  Adams,  i,  562. 


ADAMS  AND  THE  ALIEN  AND  SEDITION  LAWS     i8l 

thority  of  the  government;  and  in  case  of  war  and  inva- 
sion by  the  French,  to  join  them."  '^ 

"  The  matchless  effrontery  of  this  Duane,"  wrote  back 
Adams  in  August,  1799,  '*  merits  the  execution  of  the 
Alien  Law.  I  am  very  willing  to  try  its  strength  on 
him."  ^  This  is  hardly  the  temper  of  a  guileless  Presi- 
dent being  imposed  on  by  the  wicked  Hamilton,  as  some 
of  his  biographers  picture  him. 

Duane  absorbed  much  of  the  attention  of  the  distin- 
guished President  and  his  Secretary  of  State,  all  of  which 
would  go  to  show  that  they  were  as  eager  to  prosecute 
under  the  Alien  and  Sedition  Acts  as  any  of  the  Federal- 
ist Congressmen  had  been  to  put  them  upon  the  books. 
In  Duane's  case  Adams  felt  a  particular  interest,  for  he 
afterwards  said  that  Bache  and  Duane  had  directed  their 
criticism  against  him,  not  because  of  the  principles  he 
was  identified  with,  but  because  he  had,  in  his  negotiations 
with  France,  antagonized  Dr.  Franklin,  who  had  come  to 
hate  him.^ 

Not  even  the  presence  of  yellow  fever,  which  was  again 
severe  in  1799,  prevented  the  furious  political  war.  To 
add  to  this,  the  passage  of  the  Alien  and  Sedition  Laws 
led  to  disorder,  not  only  in  Philadelphia  but  in  other 
sections  of  the  country.  Duane,  who  had  taken  an  active 
part  in  the  endeavor  to  have  petitions  signed  for  the  re- 
peal of  the  laws,  was  indicted  for  seditious  writings. 
Several  months  later  he  was  set  upon  and  beaten.  Dem- 
ocrats gathered  around  the  office  of  the  Aurora,  ready  to 
fight  those  who  had  attacked  Duane,  if  they  returned. 
One  Democrat  visited  the  office  of  the  younger  Fenno, 
editor  of  the  Gazette,  and  assaulted  him.^^ 

^  Works  of  John  Adams,  ix,  4. 

8  Ibid,  ix,  5. 

^  Ibid,  ix,  619. 

10  Scharf  and  Westcott,  History  of  Philadelphia,  i,  497. 


l82  HISTORY  OF  JOURNALISM 

Shortly  after  the  trial  of  Duane,  Dr.  Thomas  Cooper 
was  arrested  for  criticism  of  the  government  under  the 
provisions  of  the  Sedition  Law.  It  was  alleged  that  he 
had  libeled  President  Adams  in  an  article  published  in  the 
Sunbury  and  Northumberland  Gazette,  of  which  he  was 
the  editor. 

One  reads  so  much  of  the  scurrility,  vileness  and  inde- 
cency of  the  press  in  those  days  that  it  is  but  fair  that 
one  of  these  editors  should  be  allowed  to  testify  in  his 
own  defense.  Cooper  was  found  guilty.  The  famous, 
or  rather  infamous,  Judge  Chase,  before  sentencing  him, 
questioned  him  as  to  his  financial  condition,  declaring^ 
that  he  would  be  influenced  by  Cooper's  ability  to  pay  the 
fine  himself,  if  the  members  of  the  political  party  with 
which  the  editor  was  associated  were  not  pledged  or  will- 
ing to  take  up  the  burden. 

'*  Sir,"  responded  Cooper,  *'  I  solemnly  aver,  that 
throughout  my  life,  here  and  elsewhere,  among  all  the 
political  questions  in  which  I  have  been  concerned,  I 
have  never  so  far  demeaned  myself  as  to  be  a  party  writer. 
I  never  was  in  the  pay  or  under  the  support  of  any  party ; 
there  is  no  party  in  this,  or  any  other  country,  that  can 
ofYer  me  a  temptation  to  prostitute  my  pen.  If  there  are 
any  persons  here  who  are  acquainted  with  what  I  have 
published,  they  must  feel  and  be  satisfied  that  I  have 
had  higher  and  better  motives  than  a  party  could  suggest. 
I  have  written,  to  the  best  of  my  ability,  what  I  seriously 
thought  would  conduce  to  the  geneial  good  of  mankind. 
The  exertions  of  my  talents,  such  as  they  are,  have  been 
unbought,  and  so  they  shall  continue;  they  have  indeed 
been  paid  for,  but  they  have  been  paid  for  by  myself, 
and  by  myself  only,  and  sometimes  dearly.  The  public  is 
my  debtor,  and  what  I  have  paid  or  suffered  for  them,  if 
my  duty  should  again  call  upon  me  to  write  or  act,  I  shall 


ADAMS  AND  THE  ALIEN  AND  SEDITION  LAWS     183 

again  most  readily  submit  to.  I  do  not  pretend  to  have 
no  party  opinions,  to  have  no  predilection  for  particular 
descriptions  of  men  or  of  measures ;  but  I  do  not  act  upon 
minor  considerations ;  I  belong  here,  as  in  my  former 
country,  to  the  great  party  of  mankind."      ^ 

Duane,  for  whom  Cooper  was  sponsor,  has  been  very 
roundly  abused,  and  unjustly  so.  This  is  understandable 
when  it  comes  from  contemporaries,  or  from  a  man  like 
John  Quincy  Adams,  whose  father  had  suffered  so  much 
at  Duane's  hands ;  it  is  not  quite  so  understandable  when 
it  comes  from  historians  of  this  generation.  Duane  oc- 
cupied a  conspicuous  and  important  place  in  American 
life,  and  it  is  not  true,  as  one  historian  has  said,  that  '*  his 
friendship  (almost  intimacy)  and  his  loyalty  to  Jefferson, 
constituted  his  claim. for  recognition."  ^^ 

His  later  history,  like  that  of  most  of  the  early  politi- 
cal editors,  was  unhappy.  With  the  advent  into  power 
of  Jefferson,  Duane  opened  a  store  in  Washington,  in 
the  hope  of  obtaining  the  government  printing.  Galla- 
tin endorsed  his  application,^^  and  Jefferson  himself 
promised  to  help  him  in  the  matter  of  purchasing 
supplies. ^^ 

The  various  prosecutions  under  the  Alien  and  Sedition 
Acts,  together  with  the  time  he  had  spent  in  prison,  had 
reduced  his  business  considerably.  In  a  letter  to  Pres- 
ident Madison  he  recounted  that,  in  addition  to  his  own 
family,  he  had  taken  care  of  the  progeny  of  the  descend- 
ants of  Benjamin  Franklin.  But  through  all  his  appli- 
cations for  assistance,  he  showed  himself  to  be  independ- 
ent, and  more  deeply  interested  in  the  cause  of  the  party 

11  Massachusetts    Historical    Society,    Proceedings,    xx ;    second 
series,  257. 

12  Massachusetts  Historical  Society,  Proceedings,  xx,  second  series, 
258. 

^^  Historical  Magazine,  iv,  63. 


i84  HISTORY  OF  JOURNALISM 

with  which  he  was  associated  than  in  his  own  personal 
affairs. 

Later  in  his  Hfe  his  son,  William  J.  Duane,  began  to 
take  interest  in  politics,  and  became  a  member  of  Jack- 
son's cabinet.  But  the  correspondence  of  the  elder  Duane 
reveals  him,  in  November,  1824,  broken  down,  and  com- 
plaining that  he  had  been  unable  to  borrow  any  money. 

One  of  the  papers  that  fought  the  Alien  and  Sedition 
acts  openly  and  with  vigor  was  the  sturdy  old  Independent 
Chronicle  of  Boston.  When  the  laws  were  enacted,  the 
Legislature  of  Virginia  passed  resolutions  denying  their 
constitutionality,  and  sent  copies  of  their  resolutions  to  all 
the  Legislatures.  Massachusetts,  however,  took  the  side 
of  the  President,  and  passed  a  resolution  upholding  the 
laws  and  condemning  the  Virginia  resolutions.  The 
Chronicle  protested  against  the  point  of  view,  held  by  the 
Massachusetts  Legislature,  that  denied  to  any  of  the  states 
the  right  "  to  decide  "  on  the  constitutionality  of  the  acts 
of  Congress. 

"  As  it  is  difficult  for  common  capacities  to  conceive  of 
a  sovereignty,"  the  paper  declared,  ^^  ''so  situated  that 
the  sovereign  shall  have  no  right  to  decide  on  any  invasion 
of  his  constitutional  powers,  it  is  hoped  for  the  conven- 
ience of  those  tender  consciences  who  may  hereafter  be 
called  upon  to  swear  allegiance  to  the  State,  that  some 
gentlemen  skilled  in  Federal  logic  will  show  how  the  oath 
of  allegiance  is  to  be  understood,  that  every  man  may  be 
so  guarded  and  informed  as  not  to  invite  the  Deity  to 
witness  a  falsehood." 

This,  and  a  paragraph  in  praise  of  the  legislators  who 
had  favored  the  Virginia  resolution,  led  to  the  indictment 
of  Abijah  Adams,  the  bookkeeper  of  the  paper,  as  Thomas 
Adams,  the  editor,  was  sick  in  bed,  and  the  authorities  had 

1*  February  18,  1799. 


ADAMS  AND  THE  ALIEN  AND  SEDITION  LAWS     185 

instructions  to  indict  some  one.  Abijah  was  sentenced  to 
thirty  days  in  jail,  whereupon  the  paper  scoffingly  an- 
nounced that,  although  the  bookkeeper  was  in  jail  and 
the  editor  on  his  back,  the  cause  of  liberty  would  still  be 
upheld. 

Another  victim  of  the  displeasure  of  the  administration 
was  Matthew  Lyon,  by  some  described  as  the  **  Wild 
Irishman,"  by  others  regarded  as  one  of  the  sturdiest  of 
American  patriots.  He  was  in  the  army  that  captured 
Burgoyne,  and  when  peace  was  restored  set  up  a  saw- 
mill, a  paper-mill  and  a  printing  press  near  the  foot  of 
Lake  Champlain,  and  in  1793,  published  a  small  news- 
paper which  he  at  first  called  The  Farmers'  Library  and 
later  changed  to  the  Fair  haven  Gazette.  He  was  elected 
to  Congress,  and  distinguished  himself  in  the  House  of 
Representatives  by  declining  to  march  to  the  President's 
house  to  make  the  usual  formal  call  of  respect. 

Lyon  was  one  of  the  first  of  those  brought  to  trial  un- 
der the  Sedition  law.  He  had  addressed  a  letter  to  the 
editor  of  the  Vermont  Journal  in  reply  to  an  attack  on 
his  own  course  in  Congress,  and  it  was  this  letter  that  led 
to  his  indictment.  The  principal  count  was  founded  on 
the  following  passage,  which  reads  very  mildly  to  a  later 
generation : 

"  As  to  the  Executive,  when  I  shall  see  the  efforts  of 
that  power  bent  on  the  promotion  of  the  comfort,  the 
happiness,  and  the  accommodation  of  the  people,  that 
Executive  shall  have  my  zealous  and  uniform  support. 
But  whenever  I  shall,  on  the  part  of  the  Executive,  see 
every  consideration  of  public  welfare  swallowed  up  in  a 
continual  grasp  for  power,  in  an  unbounded  thirst  for 
ridiculous  pomp,  foolish  adulation,  or  selfish  avarice; 
when  I  shall  behold  men  of  real  merit  daily  turned  out  of 
office,  for  no  other  cause  but  independency  of  spirit;  when 


i86  HISTORY  OF  JOURNALISM 

I  shall  see  men  of  firmness,  merit,  years,  abilities  and 
experience,  discarded,  in  their  application  for  office,  for 
fear  they  possess  that  independence,  and  men  of  mean- 
ness preferred,  for  the  ease  with  which  they  can  take  up 
and  advocate  opinions,  the  consequences  of  which  they 
know  but  little  of;  when  I  shall  see  the  sacred  name  of  re- 
ligion employed  as  a  state  engine  to  make  mankind  hate 
and  persecute  each  other,  I  shall  not  be  their  humble 
servant/' 

He  was  tried  by  a  judge  distinguished  for  his  vigorous 
Federal  temper,  and  conducted  his  own  defense,  alleging 
that  the  articles  complained  of  had  been  printed  before 
the  law  was  passed.  He  was  convicted,  however,  and 
sentenced  to  four  months  imprisonment,  **  and  to  pay  a 
fine  of  $1,000  with  costs  of  persecution  (sic)  taxed  at 
$60.96/'  1^ 

As  the  Federal  marshal  might  lodge  him  in  any  jail  in 
the  state,  Lyon  was  taken  to  Vergennes.  The  use  of 
writing  materials  was  denied  him  and  he  was  informed 
that,  despite  the  severe  cold  of  October  and  November,  he 
would  have  to  buy  his  own  stove  if  he  wished  to  heat 
his  cell.  His  friends  offered  to  give  bail  to  the  amount  of 
one  hundred  thousand  dollars,  but  this  was  refused. 
While  he  was  in  jail  he  was  reelected  to  Congress. 

His  revenge  was  sweet,  for  it  is  said  that  it  was  by  his 
vote  that  Jefferson  was  made  President  of  the  United 
States  in  1801.  He  went  to  Kentucky  in  the  same  year 
and  represented  that  state  in  Congress  from  1803  to 
181 1.  During  the  war  of  1812  he  ruined  himself,  finan- 
cially, in  building  gunboats  for  the  government. 

It  will  be  seen  that  they  were  rather  sturdy  characters 
that  the  misguided  Federalists  sought  to  punish. 

Hamilton  himself  appears  but  once  as  prosecutor  un- 
"^^  White,  Life  and  Service  of  Matthew  Lyon,  19. 


ADAMS  AND  THE  ALIEN  AND  SEDITION  LAWS     187 

der  the  laws  that  he  was  charged  with  having  inspired. 
Greenleaf's  Daily  Advertiser  had  been  changed  to  the 
Argus  and  was  then  edited  by  David  Frothingham ;  it 
was,  as  if  had  been  during  the  administration  of  Wash- 
ington, bitterly  anti-F'ederalist.  A  paragraph  appeared 
in  this  paper  to  the  effect  that  Mrs.  Bache  had  been  of- 
fered "  six  thousand  dollars  down "  to  suppress  the 
Aurora,  but  that  the  indignant  widow  had  refused,  de- 
claring that  she  would  never  dishonor  thus  the  memory 
of  her  husband,  ''  nor  her  children's  future  fame  by  such 
baseness;  when  she  parted  with  the  paper  it  should  be 
to  Republicans  only."  Hamilton  was  named  as  the  per- 
son back  of  the  offer. 

The  day  after  this  was  printed  Hamilton  had  Frothing- 
ham indicted  and,  despite  the  fact  that  it  was  shown  that 
he  had  copied  the  paragraph  from  another  paper,  he  was 
found  guilty,  fined  $100,  and  sentenced  to  four  months  im- 
prisonment. 

By  the  Jefferson  party  the  direct  charge  was  made  that 
the  laws  were  an  attempt  to  punish  those  who  either  sym- 
pathized with  France  or  were  in  communication  with 
French  patriots,  or,  to  be  still  more  general,  those  who 
had  attacked  the  Federalist  administration. 

The  defense  of  the  Federalists  showed  their  failure  to 
understand  the  seriousness  of  their  transgression  against 
modern  political  theory;  the  lack  of  understanding  is 
nowhere  better  shown  than  in  the  defense  of  the  Sedition 
Laws  by  Oliver  Wolcott,  Secretary  of  the  Treasury  un- 
der Washington  and  Adams.  The  fact  that  censorship  of 
the  press  had,  in  the  past,  been  tolerated  and  encouraged, 
gave  them,  as  they  believed,  a  historic  justification  for  the 
violation  of  popular  rights. 

''  Those  to  whom  the  management  of  public  affairs  is 
now  confided,"  concluded  Wolcott,  "  cannot  be  justified 


l88  HISTORY  OF  JOURNALISM 

in  yielding  any  established  principles  of  law  or  govern- 
ment to  the  suggestion  of  modern  theory."  ^^ 

Even  Washington,  in  a  letter  to  Alexander  Spotswood, 
said  that  it  was  time  that  the  country  had  laws  against 
those  aliens  who  wrote  and  spoke  "  for  the  express  pur- 
pose of  poisoning  the  minds  of  our  people."  ^^ 

Unfortunately  for  Wolcott  and  Adams  and  the  other 
Federalists,  the  **  modern  theory  "  was  ensconced  more 
firmly  by  the  attempt  to  check  it  than  by  any  other  meas- 
ure since  the  similar  endeavor  on  the  part  of  George  the 
Third. 

But  the  political  insanity  of  the  Federalists  did  not  end 
with  these  attacks  on  the  press  and  on  aliens,  which  added 
large  forces  to  those  who  already  believed  that  a  tenet  of 
the  Federalist  faith  was  the  belief  that  '*  there  ought  to 
be  in  America  only  two  sorts  of  people:  one  very  rich, 
the  other  very  poor."  ^^  Fisher  Ames  expressed  the  bit- 
terness of  the  Federalists  when  he  wrote  in  1803  :  "  De- 
mocracy cannot  last."  Dennie,  the  editor  of  the  Portfolio, 
declared :  "  A  Democracy  is  scarcely  tolerable  at  any 
period  of  national  history,"  ^^  and  this  paragraph  was  re- 
printed by  the  Federalist  papers. 

-  As  if  this  were  not  sufficient  handicap  for  a  party  about 
to  go  to  the  people  for  a  verdict,  the  leaders  quarreled 
openly  among  themselves.  Hamilton  administered  the 
final  coup  de  grace  to  Adams.  A  few  weeks  before  the 
election  in  1800  he  devoted  himself  to  penning  a  severe 
attack  on  the  President,  though  whether  he  intended  that 
it  should  be  public  property  before  the  election  is  a  ques- 
tion.    In  any  case,  Aaron  Burr,  of  all  persons,  succeeded 

1®  Gibbs,  Memoirs  of  Administrations  of  Washington  and  John 
Adams,  ii,  85. 

17  Writings  of  George  Washington,  ii,  345. 

18  Pellew,  Life  of  John  Jay,  275. 

19  Adam.S;  History  of  the  United  States,,  i,  85. 


ADAMS  AND  THE  ALIEN  AND  SEDITION  LAWS     189 

in  getting  copies  of  the  sheets  of  Hamilton's  composition 
as  they  were  set  up  by  the  printer,  and  scattered  them 
through  the  anti-Federahst  press.  In  the  last  week  of 
October  the  pamphlet  itself  was  released  and  made  cer- 
tain the  defeat  of  Adams  and  the  election  of  Thomas 
Jefferson.  William  Duane,  writing  to  his  friend,  Gen- 
eral Collot,  who  had  been  driven  to  the  other  side  of  the 
Atlantic  by  the  Alien  Law,  said :  "  This  pamphlet  has 
done  more  mischief  to  the  parties  concerned  than  all  the 
labors  of  the  Aurora/' 

The  anomaly  of  Hamilton's  using  Burr,  the  man  by 
whom  he  was  afterward  killed,  to  bring  about  the  eleva- 
tion to  the  presidency  of  his  bitterest  enemy,  Jefferson, 
is  not  more  strange  than  the  manner  in  which  John 
Adams  passed  out  of  political  life.  One  would  have  ex- 
pected from  the  glorious  associate  of  Sam  Adams,  the 
man  who  urged  Edes  and  Gill  to  hold  fast  and  not  be 
swayed  from  the  true  path  of  patriotic  printers,  that  he 
would  have  sensed  the  folly  of  the  course  on  which  he 
had  embarked.  That  it  was  Hamilton,  the  brilliant  edi- 
torial writer  and  manager,  who  administered  to  him  the 
final  stroke,  shows  how  uncertain  and  temperamental  were 
the  ties.  But  one  leaves  the  second  president  with  the 
feeling  that  he  w^as  a  lovable  old  blunderer,  and  a  fine, 
God-given  American,  the  very  best  of  that  great  New 
England  stock. 


CHAPTER   XIV 

HAMILTON  AND  THE    EVENING  POST 

Beginning  of  dissolution  of  Federalist  party  —  Establishment 
of  Post  —  Cheetham,  Duane  and  Coleman  —  Duel  between 
Coleman  and  Thompson  —  James  Thompson  Callender  —  His 
arrest  and  trial  —  Sudden  turning  against  Jefferson  —  Jeffer- 
son's opinion  of  the  press  —  The  Croswell  case  —  Letters  of 
General  Philip  Schuyler  —  Hamilton's  great  speech  —  His 
remark  concerning  Burr  —  His  death. 

N 

With  this  chapter  we  close  the  eighteenth  century,  re- 
markable for  many  contributions  to  human  progress,  not 
the  least  of  which  was  the  distinct  assumption  of  political 
\  functions  by  the  newspaper  press. ^ 

Theoretically  the  Revolutionary  War  marked  the  as- 
sumption of  political  functions  by  the  great  mass  of  the 
people,  but  actually  a  majority  remained  non-active;  in 
fact,  until  the  time  of  President  Monroe,  many,  even  of 
the  white  people  of  the  United  States, — democracy 
though  it  professed  to  be, —  had  no  actual  voting  power. 
In  the  meantime  the  will  of  the  people  was  expressed 
through  the  newspaper  press. 

The  Alien  and  Sedition  Laws  were  the  last  attempts  by 
the  government  in  power  to  check  the  development  of  the 
Fourth  Estate  and  the  exercise  of  its  acquired  political 
power.  Those  who  believed  in  government  by  a  select 
minority  felt  that  such  power  in  the  hands  of  irrespon- 
sible persons,  such  as  editors  and  printers,  was  a  danger 
to  the  community ;  especially  dangerous  to  those  who  were 
the  political  representatives  of  the  old  order  of  things. 

1  Henry  Jones  Ford,  American  Politics,  io8. 

190 


HAMILTON  AND  THE  EVENING  POST         191 

But  the  Federalist  attack  failed;  the  Federalist  party 
was  defeated  and,  with  the  advent  of  Jefferson  into  power, 
there  began  the  dissolution  of  the  first  political  party  in 
the  country,  the  only  one  to  misinterpret  so  wilfully  the 
character  of  the  government  that  this  was  to  be. 

It  is  unfortunate  that  those  who  write  of  this  period, 
even  after  so  many  years,  do  so  with  some  of  the  acrimony 
of  the  times.  To  admire  Hamilton  is  to  disparage  Jef- 
ferson, and  z'ice  versa.  In  this  regard  the  student  of 
journalism  is  more  happily  placed  than  the  student  of  poli- 
tics, for  to  both  men  journalism  is  largely,  and  very 
nearly  equally,  indebted.  The  most  influential  conserva- 
tive paper  to-day,  the  New  York  Evening  Post,  was 
Hamilton's  own  undertaking,  while  to  Jefferson's  belief 
in  the  masses,  and  in  a  government  resting  on  a  broad 
popular  appeal,  we  owe  much  of  the  development  of  the 
great  popular  journals  that  came  later  with  what  was 
called  the  cheap  press,  the  press  for  "  even  "  the  work- 
ingmen. 

The  very  success  of  this  conservative  press  has  proved 
the  justification  of  Hamilton's  industry,  though  it  is  never 
the  conservative  press  that  rules  the  country.  Neverthe- 
less we  shall  see  it,  under  the  leadership  of  Godkin  and 
others,  one  of  the  most  effective  forces  in  the  country  for 
certain  specific  governmental  reforms. 

The  political  triumph  of  Jefferson  in  1800  "  was  an 
event  of  importance  in  the  history  of  the  world."  ^  It 
marked,  moreover,  the  retirement  of  Hamilton  from  na- 
tional life,  although  he  could  not  and  did  not  give  up  his 
interest  in  the  affairs  of  his  state.  It  was  this,  more 
than  a  desire  to  found  a  national  organ,  that  led  him, 
shortly  after  the  inauguration  of  Jefferson,  to  establish 
with  John  Jay  and  a  group  of  Federalists,  the  New  York 

2  Gordy,  Political  Parties  in  the  United  States,  i,  382. 


192  HISTORY  OF  JOURNALISM 

Evening  Post,  November  i6,  1801.  William  Coleman,  a 
Massachusetts  lawyer,  who  at  one  time  had  been  associ- 
ated with  Aaron  Burr,  was  made  the  editor.  His  oppo- 
nents gave  Coleman  the  title  of  "  Field  Marshal  of  Fed- 
eral Exiitors  "  and  he  was  unquestionably  the  ablest  man 
in  the  country  in  his  line. 

It  is  to  him  that  we  owe  what  knowledge  we  have  of 
Hamilton's  editorial  methods.  Hamilton,  it  seems,  was 
in  the  habit  of  seeing  Coleman  late  in  the  evening,  when- 
ever the  latter  felt  the  necessity  of  the  statesman's  as- 
sistance. "  He  always  kept  himself  minutely  informed 
on  all  political  matters,"  was  Coleman's  confidential  state- 
ment to  a  contemporary ;  "  as  soon  as  I  see  him,  he  begins 
in  a  deliberate  manner  to  dictate  and  I  to  note  down  in 
shorthand ;  when  he  stops,  my  article  is  completed."  ^  A 
very  humble  note  for  an  editor,  but  Hamilton  was  then  a 
powerful  political  figure,  with  a  position  in  his  state  not 
very  dissimilar  to  that  which  Theodore  Roosevelt  occu- 
pied in  our  own  time,  after  his  retirement  from  office. 

In  New  York  State  there  was  a  particularly  bitter 
struggle,  because  here  were  located  Aaron  Burr, —  now 
Vice-president  under  Jefferson,  although  secretly  opposed 
to  him  —  and  Hamilton,  the  acknowledged  leader  of  what 
remained  of  the  Federalist  party.  Burr's  endeavor  to 
make  himself  a  leader  of  the  anti-Jeff ersonian  party  led 
to  vicious  attacks  on  him  by  the  American  Citizen,  edited 
by  James  Cheetham,  one  of  the  vigorous  editors  of  the 
day.  Duane,  editor  of  the  Aurora,  and  Coleman,  editor 
of  the  Evening  Post,  constituted,  with  Cheetham,  a  tri- 
umvirate of  editorial  pugnacity  and  vivacity. 

As  Burr  also  had  a  paper,  the  Chronicle,  the  result  was 
a  continual  exchange  of  personalities,  probably  more  vi- 
cious than  at  any  period  in  history,  at  least  in  that  of 

^  G.  J.  Clark,  Memoir  of  Jeremiah  Mason,  32. 


HAMILTON  AND  THE  EVENING  POST        193 

New  York  State.  Several  duels  resulted  from  this  bitter 
warfare.  Coleman  challenged  Cheetham,  who  displayed 
good  sense  by  refusing  to  take  the  matter  too  seriously, 
and  the  differences  were  temporarily  adjusted. 

A  harbor-master  named  Thompson,  resenting  the  sug- 
gestion that  Cheetham  had  weakened,  declared  that  it  was 
Coleman  who  had  backed  down.  Coleman  immediately 
sent  him  a  challenge;  the  next  day  they  met  on  the  out- 
skirts of  the  city,  in  a  place  called  "  Love  Lane,"  now  the 
foot  of  Twenty-first  Street,  and  exchanged  two  shots 
without  effect;  because  of  the  growing  darkness  the  op- 
ponents moved  closer,  and  at  the  next  shot  Thompson 
was  mortally  wounded.  The  editor  of  the  Evening  Post 
was  at  his  office  the  next  day  as  if  nothing  had  occurred, 
at  least  nothing  unusual  in  the  life  of  an  editorial  pub- 
lisher."* 

It  all  seemed  in  the  day's  work,  and  no  one  recalled 
that  an  editor,  not  a  hundred  years  before,  had  been 
threatened  with  imprisonment  for  printing;  the  commu- 
nity had  progressed  so  far  that  now,  not  only  was  an  edi- 
tor printing  his  paper  without  let  or  hindrance,  but  he 
was  supported  by  the  government  in  so  doing.  What 
was  more  remarkable  still,  the  editor  now  had  the  satis- 
faction of  knowing  that  he  might  kill  or  be  killed  accord- 
ing to  the  Code. 

Coleman's  duel  is  a  milestone  in  journalistic  history, 
viewed  in  its  relation  to  the  Hamilton-Burr  duel  that  re- 
sulted in  the  death  of  one  of  America's  ablest  statesmen. 
The  Code  itself  was  one  evidence  of  the  weaknesses  of  the 
Federalist  cause,  conveying  the  idea  that  the  well-born 
had  a  code  of  their  own  that  was  superior  to  the  laws 
that  governed  the  common  herd. 

In  1804  came  up  the  Croswell  case,  growing  out  of  the 

*  Alexander,  Political  History  of  New  York  State,  i,  128. 


194  HISTORY  OF  JOURNALISM 

charges  made  by  James  Thompson  Callender,  whose  at- 
tack on  the  Tories  had  led  to  WilHam  Cobbett's  Hterary 
activities  in  Philadelphia.  Callender  had  begun  publish- 
ing, in  1795,  an  annual  called  Political  Progress  and  later 
called  the  American  Annual  Register.  It  contained  a  ref- 
erence to  Hamilton's  illicit  relations  with  Mrs.  Reynolds ; 
a  reference  that  led  Hamilton,  in  self-defense,  to  put  into 
print  his  whole  statement  of  the  Reynolds  scandal,  a  most 
unfortunate  confession.  Callender  was  later  employed 
by  Bache  on  the  Aurora,  and  when  a  strong  Republican 
paper  was  needed  in  Virginia,  he  started  the  Richmond 
Examiner.  For  publishing  a  pamphlet  called  **  The 
Prospect  Before  Us,"  in  which  he  bitterly  attacked 
Adams,  the  Federalists  and  the  Alien  and  Sedition  Acts, 
he  was  indicted ;  the  infamous  Chase,  who  commanded  the 
marshal  to  see  that  none  of  the  "  rascally  Democrats  " 
were  on  the  jury,  presided  at  the  trial.  The  trial  was  a 
mockery,  and  Callender  was  convicted  before  nightfall 
and  sentenced  to  nine  months'  imprisonment.  While  in 
jail  he  defiantly  continued  his  work  and  issued  a  still  more 
savage  attack  on  Jefferson's  political  opponents. 

On  Jefferson's  election,  Callender  was  granted  a  full 
pardon,  his  term  of  imprisonment  having  expired,  but  he 
was  not  content  with  this.  He  demanded  the  postmaster- 
ship —  ever  the  postmastership  —  of  Richmond;  when 
this  was  refused,  he  associated  himself  with  the  Richmond 
Reporter,  filling  its  columns  with  slander  and  abuse  of 
Jefferson. 

By  this  sudden  change  in  Callender's  political  faith  the 
Federalists  came  into  possession  of  what  they  considered 
the  most  damaging  evidence  against  Jefferson,  and  it  was 
used  unsparingly,  with  Coleman  demonstrating  his  ability 
as  "  Field-Marshal." 

Jefferson,  the  believer  in  a  free  press,  now  tasted  some 


HAMILTON  AND  THE  EVENING  POST         195 

of  its  bitterness.  Shortly  after  taking  office  he  had  be- 
gun to  feel,  apparently,  that  a  free  press  had  its  disad- 
vantages ;  he  referred  to  the  newspapers  as  "  a  bear-gar- 
den scene 'into  which  I  have  made  it  a  point  to  enter  on 
no  provocation."  ' 

On  the  other  hand,  shortly  after  his  inauguration  he  set 
forth  in  a  letter  to  Elbridge  Gerry  his  attitude  toward  the 
press,  as  he  consistently  lived  it  out. 

"  The  right  of  opinion,"  he  said,  **  shall  suffer  no  in- 
vasion from  me.     Those  who  have  acted  well  have  noth- 
ing to  fear,  however  they  may  have  differed  from  me  in 
opinion;  those  who  have  done  ill,  however,  have  nothing 
to  hope,  nor  shall  I  fail  to  do  justice  lest  it  should  be  as- 
cribed to  that  difference  of  opinion.     A  coalition  of  sen- 
timents is  not  for  the  interest  of  the  printers.     They,  like 
the  clergy,  live  by  the  zeal  they  can  kindle,  and  the  schisms 
they  can  create.     It  is  contest  of  opinion  in  politics  as  well 
as  religion  that  makes  us  take  great  interest  in  them,  and 
bestow  our  money  liberally  on  those  who  furnish  aliment 
to  our  appetite.     The  mild  and  simple  principles  of  the 
Christian  philosophy  would  produce  too  much  calm,  too 
much  regularity  of  good,  to  extract  from  its  disciples  a 
support  from  a  numerous  priesthood,  were  it  not  to  so- 
phisticate it,  ramify  it,  split  it  into  hairs,  and  twist  its 
texts  till  they  cover  the  divine  morality  of  its  author  with 
mysteries  and  require  a  priesthood  to  explain  them.     The 
Quakers  seem  to  have  discovered  this.     They  have  no 
priests,  therefore,  no  schisms.     They  judge  of  the  text 
by  the  dictates  of  common  sense  and  common  morality. 
So  the  printers  can  never  leave  us  in  a  state  of  perfect  rest 
and  union  of  opinion.     They  would  be  no  longer  useful, 
and  would  have  to  go  to  the  plough.     In  the  first  mo- 
ments of  quietude  which  have  succeeded  the  election  they 

^Jefferson's  Works,  x,  173. 


196  HISTORY  OF  JOURNALISM 

seem  to  have  aroused  their  lying  faculties  beyond  their 
ordinary  state,  to  re-agitate  the  public  mind.  What  ap- 
pointments to  office  they  have  detailed  which  had  never 
been  thought  of,  merely  to  found  a  text  for  their  calum- 
niating commentaries !  However,  the  steady  character  of 
our  countrymen  is  a  rock  to  which  we  may  safely  moor; 
and  notwithstanding  the  efforts  of  the  papers  to  dissem- 
inate early  discontents,  I  expect  that  a  just,  dispassionate 
and  steady  conduct  will  at  length  rally  to  a  proper  sys- 
tem the  great  body  of  our  country."  ^ 

Under  further  newspaper  attacks  he  showed  that  his 
mind  was  working  somewhat  sympathetically  towards  the 
point  of  view  of  the  Federalists,  and  in  a  letter  to  Mrs. 
John  Adams,  dated  September  11,  1804,  he  admitted  that 
the  state  had  the  right  to  control  the  freedom  of  the  press. 
"  While  we  deny,"  he  wrote,  "  that  Congress  have  a  right 
to  control  the  freedom  of  the  press,  we  have  ever  asserted 
the  right  of  the  States,  and  their  exclusive  right,  to  do  so. 
They  have  accordingly,  all  of  them,  made  provisions  for 
punishing  slander,  which  those  who  have  time  and  in- 
clination, resort  to  for  the  vindication  of  their  characters. 
In  general,  the  State  laws  appear  to  have  made  the  presses 
responsible  for  slander  as  far  as  is  consistent  with  its  use- 
ful freedom.  In  those  states  where  they  do  not  admit 
even  the  truth  of  allegations  to  protect  the  printer,  they 
have  gone  too  far."  "^ 

While  his  mind  was  working  in  this  way  it  was  decided 
by  some  of  his  advisors  that  there  should  be  a  check  put 
on  the  libels  of  the  Federalists  against  the  President, 
while  at  the  same  time  the  Federalists  were  given  a  taste 
of  their  own  medicine. 

The  Hudson  (New  York)  Balance  was  the  paper  se- 

^  Jefferson's  Works,  x,  254. 
"^Jefferson's  Works,  xi,  51. 


HAMILTON  AND  THE  EVENING  POST         197 

lected,  because  of  the  vigorous  editorship  of  Harry  Cros- 
well,  who  was  an  able  assistant  to  Coleman  of  the  New 
York  Evening  Post  in  disseminating  FederaHst  doctrine 
through  the  Hudson  Valley  and  up-state  New  York. 

Following  one  of  Coleman's  vicious  attacks  on  Jeffer- 
son, Croswell  had  printed  a  paragraph  to  the  effect  that 
Jefferson  had  paid  James  T.  Callender  to  slander  Wash- 
ington and  Adams.  Croswell  was  pounced  upon,  and 
the  Democratic  party  leaders  felt  that  now  they  would 
exact  payment  in  full  for  the  oppression  they  had  suf- 
fered under  the  Alien  and  Sedition  Acts.  The  case  went 
to  court,  the  pack  of  Democratic  editors  in  joyous  pursuit, 
and  Croswell  was  found  guilty. 

A  touching  letter  exists  which  reveals  old  General 
Philip  Schuyler  appealing  to  his  daughter  to  urge  her  hus- 
band to  come  to  the  aid  of  the  Federal  printer  who  is 
so  sore  beset  by  his  political  and  editorial  enemies.  "  I 
have  had  about  a  dozen  Federalists  ask  me,"  he  says, 
"  entreating  me  to  write  to  Your  General  if  possible  to 
attend  on  the  7th  of  next  month  at  Claverack,  as  Council 
to  the  Federal  printer  there."  ® 

It  is  a  fine  letter  from  a  fine  old  gentleman,  alive  and 
sensitive  to  all  the  obligations  of  his  leading  position;  not 
running  off  and  letting  the  poor  *'  Federal  printer  "  lan- 
guish in  jail,  as  did  the  political  associates  of  John  Peter 
Zenger,  who  claimed  poor  Zenger's  literary  style  and 
Latin  quotations,  but  were  entirely  oblivious  when  the 
opportunity  arose  for  furnishing  his  bail. 

On  the  first  trial  Hamilton  had  been  too  busy  to  appear 
in  Croswell's  behalf,  but  when  a  motion  was  made  for 
a  new  trial  before  the  Supreme  Court  at  Albany,  he  ap- 
peared and  made  one  of  the  most  notable  arguments  in 

8  Allan  McLane  Hamilton,  Intimate  Life  of  Alexander  Hamilton^ 
180. 


198  HISTORY  OF  JOURNALISM 

his  life;  a  speech  that  is,  curiously  enough,  a  continuation 
historically  and  legally  of  the  great  speech  made  by  An- 
drew Hamilton  in  1735  at  the  trial  of  John  Peter  Zenger. 
By  Chancellor  Kent  it  was  declared  to  be  Hamilton's 
"  greatest  forensic  effort  "  and  the  ardor  with  which  he 
threw  himself  into  the  cause  is  said  to  have  made  his 
pleading  a  memorable  event.  It  was  his  last  important 
speech  and  one  cannot  fail  to  mark  that  he,  the  genius  who 
owed  to  journalism  his  education  and  his  opportunity, 
ended  his  long  record  of  service  to  humanity  as  he  made 
his  greatest  legal  effort  for  the  freedom  and  protection 
of  the  press. 

In  declaring  Croswell  guilty  the  judge  had  ruled,  as 
had  Judge  De  Lancey  in  the  Zenger  case,  that  the  truth 
of  the  libel  could  not  be  offered  in  evidence.  It  will  be 
remembered  that  the  venerable  Andrew  Hamilton  had,  in 
the  face  of  all  precedent,  shattered  this  stand,  at  least  so 
far  as  the  jury  was  concerned. 

Hamilton's  Croswell  speech  itself  has  been  lost,^  but  in 
his  preparatory  notes  he  emphasizes,  as  only  he  could 
emphasize,  those  principles  the  development  of  which  in 
this  country  we  have  been  tracing  from  the  time  of  Benja- 
min Harris  in  1690. 

The  outgrown  dictum,  "  the  greater  the  truth  the 
greater  the  libel,"  was  bad  in  morals  and  bad  in  law, 
he  contended.  "  The  liberty  of  the  press,"  his  notes  read, 
"  consists  in  the  right  to  publish  with  impunity  truth 
with  good  motives  for  justifiable  ends,  though  reflecting 
on  the  Government,  Magistracy  or  individuals." 

The  allowance  of  this  right,  he  argued,  was  essential 
to  the  preservation  of  free  government,  the  disallow- 
ance of  it,  fatal.  ^^ 

®  Lodge,  Hamilton,  240. 

10  Allan  McLane  Hamilton,  Life  of  Alexander  Hamilton,  181. 


HAMILTON  AND  THE  EVENING  POST         199 

The  court  divided  after  a  long  argument  and  the  law 
was  upheld,  but  so  profound  was  the  impression  made 
on  the  lawmaking  body  by  his  speech,  that  the  New  York 
State  legislature  subsequently  passed  a  statute  authoriz- 
ing the  truth  to  be  admitted  in  evidence  and  the  jury  to 
be  the  judges  of  the  law  as  well  as  of  the  facts  in  libel 
cases. 

It  was  during  his  attendance  at  court  on  this  case  that 
Hamilton  made  the  remark,  about  Aaron  Burr  and  his 
lack  of  principle,  that  later  led  the  Vice-President  to 
challenge  Hamilton  to  a  duel. 

In  the  group  sitting  about  the  table  in  Lewis'  tavern 
when  Hamilton  discussed  Burr,  was  one  who  idly  repeated 
the  conversation.  A  letter  quoting  Hamilton  found  its 
way  into  the  newspapers  and  this  was  called  to  Hamil- 
ton's attention  by  Burr.  The  offensive  tone  of  Burr's 
communication  shows  that  he  was  not  to  be  contented 
without  a  duel;  Hamilton's  explanation  was  declared  by 
Burr  to  be  "a,  mere  evasion,"  and  a  challenge  was  sent 
on  June  27,  1804. 

On  the  morning  of  July  nth  they  crossed  the  Hud- 
son to  Weehawken,  and  faced  each  other.  Burr  fired 
and  Hamilton  fell,  dying  thirty-one  hours  later.  His  pis- 
tol was  undischarged  and  before  he  died  he  declared  that 
he  had  never  intended  to  fire  at  Burr. 

Hamilton  was  one  of  America's  greatest  statesmen, 
and,  despite  his  disbelief  in  the  rule  of  the  masses,  he  did 
more,  not  only  to  establish  and  to  safeguard  a  free  press, 
but  to  develop  it,  than  any  other  man  has  done.  The 
political  ideas  with  which  his  name  was  associated  in 
later  life  were  doomed  to  pass  with  the  Federalist  party, 
which  had  been  identified  with  disbelief  in  the  stability 
of  purely  popular  government,  but  his  influence  as  a 
journalist  continued  for  generations  and  still  continues. 


CHAPTER  XV 

EMIGRATION  AND  THE  PAPERS  OF  THE  WEST 

Influence  of  Hamilton  and  Jefferson  on  Journalism  —  Trans- 
Appalachian  emigration  —  John  Scull  and  the  Pittsburgh  Ga- 
zette —  He  borrows  "  Cartridge  Paper  "  —  Paper-mills  west 
of  the  Alleghanies  —  Old  papers  still  surviving  —  List  of 
Kentucky  newspapers  —  Joseph  H.  Daveiss  and  Joseph  Mont- 
ford  Street  —  Papers  in  northwest  territory. 

Never  had  a  country  greater  need  of  human  ingenuity 
and  human  resourcefulness  than  had  this  nation  during 
the  years  immediately  following  the  war  for  independence. 
In  a  new  country,  between  the  shore  of  the  great  ocean 
and  the  vast  wilderness  that  lay  on  the  other  side  of 
the  Appalachian  range,  a  new  government  was  about  to 
be  formed,  by  men  who  were  more  conquerors  of  the 
soil  than  they  were,  by  nature,  statesmen. 

If  journalism  established  itself  in  this  country  In  a  way 
that  amazed  European  critics;  if  it  made  progress  and 
worked  out  developments  that  perplexed  even  our  own 
astute  thinkers,  the  explanation  is  to  be  found,  not  in  one 
fact  but  in  many  facts.  The  most  important  was  that 
in  the  great  crisis  in  the  history  of  the  country  and  at  an 
acute  period  in  the  development  of  the  democratic  idea 
in  the  world,  it  was  through  journalism  that  two  of  the 
country's  most  brilliant  politicians,  Hamilton  and  Jef- 
ferson, worked  out  a  great  political  idea. 

As  we  have  said  before,  even  at  this  distance  of  time, 
we  are  sensitive  to  the  acrimony  of  that  struggle  between 
Hamilton  and  Jefferson.  True,  it  degenerated  into  a  per- 
sonal contest  of  ambitions,  but  it  was,  nevertheless,  a 

200 


EMIGRATION  AND  THE  PAPERS  OF  THE  WEST    201 

great  epoch-making  contest  in  the  history  of  democracy, 
for  it  was  to  the  reading  pubHc  that  they  appealed;  not 
to  the  House  of  ParHament,  not  to  those  alone  who  en- 
joyed the  suffrage  privilege, —  a  minority  at  that  time  — 
but  to  the  reading  public.  Their  battles  in  the  public 
press  influenced  the  character  of  development  in  the  west, 
where  the  printing  press  almost  anticipated  the  trader. 
So  we  find  in  the  new  settlements,  those  founded  im- 
mediately after  the  Revolution,  a  vigorous  belief  in  pub- 
lic affairs. 

The  thin  line  of  colonies  on  the  Atlantic  coast  had 
scarcely  thrown  off  the  British  rule  in  1783  when  their 
power,  influence  and  territorial  aggrandizement  began  to 
develop  in  a  way  that  was  to  make  the  next  hundred 
years  far  more  remarkable  than  the  century  just  closed. 
With  the  end  of  the  Revolutionary  War,  the  country 
back  of  the  Appalachian  mountains  began  to  swarm  with 
new  settlers,  and  in  this  wilderness  the  press  was  not 
only  welcome  but  was  considered  a  necessary  symbol  of 
the  dignity  of  the  settlement. 

One  of  the  reasons  for  the  emigration  after  the  Revo- 
lution was  the  fact  that,  for  the  poor  working  classes,  life 
was  but  a  miserable  existence.  They  were  daily  in  sharp 
contrast  with  those  who  had  plenty.  The  stories  of  fer- 
tile fields,  of  easy  and  independent  living,  were  attractive. 
Conditions  in  the  wilderness  could  not  be  worse  than  they 
were  in  the  so-called  civilized  places,  and  so  these  sons 
of  hardy  settlers  packed  their  goods  and  chattels  and 
trekked  west.^ 

Two  wagon  roads  penetrated  the  great  wilderness  that 
lay  back  of  the  thirteen  colonies,  one  through  Philadel- 
phia to  Pittsburgh  and  the  other  from  the  Potomac  to 
the  Monongahela.     A  third  load  led  through  Virginia 

1  McMaster,  History  of  the  United  States,  i,  70. 


202  HISTORY  OF  JOURNALISM 

southwesterly  to  the  Holston  River  and  Knoxville  in 
Tennessee, 

Those  who  passed  over  these  roads  intending  to  farm 
had  at  least  good  prospects,  but  the  printers  who  decided 
to  cast  their  fortunes  with  the  settlers  beyond  the  moun- 
tains faced  the  probability  of  failure,  for  there  was  noth- 
ing to  advertise.  Even  in  the  centers  of  western  popula- 
tion, money  was  scarce  and  barter  was  still  the  principal 
mode  of  exchange. 

The  principal  road  had  been  completed  in  1785,  lead- 
ing from  Philadelphia,  then  the  metropolis  of  the  nation, 
to  the  forks  of  the  Ohio, —  a  distance  of  three  hundred 
miles.  An  express  line  of  Conestoga  wagons  passed  to 
and  fro  on  this  turnpike,  and  paper,  type,  ink  and  presses 
had  to  be  transported  over  it,  at  the  rate  of  six  dollars  a 
hundredweight. 

Pittsburgh,  at  that  time  the  frontier  of  civilization,  was 
a  shabby  little  river  port  with  a  population  not  exceed- 
ing three  hundred  souls,  in  less  than  forty  log  houses 
scattered  along  the  levee  where  many  flatboats  and  river 
craft  waited  to  carry  the  immigrants  and  their  goods  into 
the  western  country. 

To  this  uninviting  settlement,  with  a  noble  purpose 
went  John  Scull,  a  Quaker  boy  of  twenty-one  and  a  true 
pioneer.  He  had  seen  the  chaotic  conditions  in  the 
country  and  had  decided  that  it  would  be  a  fine  thing 
to  print  and  publish  a  journal  that  would  arouse  the 
western  country  to  the  necessity  of  standing  by  the  union. 
He  had  come  west  with  that  idea  in  mind  and  on,  July 
29,  1786,  the  Pittsburgh  Gazette  was  printed.  Follow- 
ing a  historic  precedent.  Scull  —  who  was  known  as 
"  the  handsome  young  man  with  the  white  hat,"  ^  —  eked 

2  W.   H.   Venable,   Beginnings  of  Literary  Culture  in  the  Ohio 
Valley. 


EMIGRATION  AND  THE  PAPERS  OF  THE  WEST     203 

out  a  livelihood  by  serving  as  postmaster  of  the  port. 

An  ardent  Federalist,  he  did  the  job  he  had  set  out  to 
do.  Even  later  he  stood  by  the  government  so  steadfastly 
during  the  Whiskey  Insurrection  that  the  local  faction 
placed  him  under  arrest,  "  It  is  difficult  to  estimate  the 
services  these  men  performed  for  the  Community,"  says 
the  historian  of  Pittsburgh,  speaking  of  Scull  and  his 
son  and  successor.  ^ 

We  get  an  inkling  of  the  difficulties  that  beset  the 
young  printer  —  in  addition  to  the  disorganization  that 
preceded  the  adoption  of  the  Constitution — from  a  let- 
ter addressed  by  him  to  the  commandant  of  the  fort,  ask- 
ing for  the  loan  of  some  paper  with  which  to  print  his 
journal,  none  having  arrived  from  the  East.  The  com- 
mandant obligingly  lent  him  ''  twenty-seven  quires  of  cart- 
ridge paper." 

While  the  Gazette  was  a  Federal  organ,  it  was  liberally 
conducted,  for  Scull  permitted  H.  H.  Brackenridge  to  put 
forth  the  Jeffersonian  ideas  at  some  length.  But  the  anti- 
Federalists  felt  that  they  were  not  properly  supported  in 
this  section  and  in  1798  a  paper  called  the  Herald  of 
Liberty  was  brought  out  at  Washington,  Pennsylvania, 
under  the  management  of  John  D.  Israel.  This  was 
followed  two  years  later  by  one  at  Pittsburgh  called  the 
Tree  of  Liberty. 

So  pressing  was  the  necessity  for  a  paper-mill  that  one 
was  established  in  1793,  at  the  Kentucky  hamlet  of  Royal 
Spring.  The  second  paper-mill  west  of  the  Alleghanies 
was  established  in  1796,  but  it  was  not  until  1820  that 
a  type  foundry  was  established  in  the  trans-Alleghany 
region.  Although  the  pioneer  journalists  were  apt  to 
be  adventurers  and  "  frequently  unsuccessful  as  business 
managers  "  they  were,  in  the  main,  men  who  had  to  be 

3Killikelly,  History  of  Pittsburgh,  485. 


204  HISTORY  OF  JOURNALISM 

reckoned  with  and  men  who,  in  addition  to  winning 
prominence  in  the  poHtical  field,  saw  the  business  side 
of  Hfe,  and  the  necessity  for  developing  it.  "*  The 
promptness  with  which  they  started  paper-mills  and  type 
foundries  was  evidence  that  the  printers  were  not  con- 
tent to  be  merely  the  mental  feeders  of  the  new  country. 
The  Pittsburgh  Gazette  recently  celebrated  its  one  hun- 
dred and  twenty-fifth  anniversary.  On  that  occasion  it 
printed  the  names  of  the  papers  which  antedated  it  and 
which,  at  that  time,  were  still  in  existence,  — a  notable 
list: 

The  Courant,  Hartford,  Conn.,  1764 

The  Connecticut  Herald  and  Weekly  Journal,  New  Haven, 

1766 
The  Chronicle,  Augusta,  Ga.,  1785 
The  Advertiser,  Portland,  Maine,  1785 
The  Maryland  Gazette,  Annapolis,  1745 
The  American,  Baltimore,  1773 
The  Hampshire  Gazette,  Northampton,  Mass.,  1786 
The  Register  and  Mercury,  Salem,  Mass.,  1768 
The  Journal,  Elizabeth,  N.  J.,  1779 
The  Gazette,  Hudson,  N.  Y.,  1785 
The  Eagle,  Poughkeepsie,  N.  Y.,  1785 
The  Philadelphia  North  American,  1728 
The  Saturday  Evening  Post,  Philadelphia,  1728 
The  Mercury,  Newport,  R.  I.,  1758 
The  News  and  Courier,  Charleston,  S.  C,  1732 
The  Journal,  Windsor,  Vt.,  1783 
The  Gazette,  Alexandria,  Va.,  1780 
The  New  Hampshire  Gazette,  Portsmouth,  1756 

(  The  second  paper  west  of  the  AUeghanies  was  estab- 
lished in  Kentucky  as  a  political  necessity.  Kentucky 
was  then  a  part  of  Virginia,  and  there  was  an  earnest 
movement  on  foot  to  separate  it  from  the  mother  state. 
At  a  convention  held  in  Danville  in  1785,  it  was  resolved 
that  "  to  insure  unanimity  in  the  opinion  of  the  people, 

*  Thwaites,  Proceedings  of  the  Antiquarian  Society,  xix,  350. 


EMIGRATION  AND  THE  PAPERS  OF  THE  WEST     205 

respecting  the  propriety  of  separating  the  district  of  Ken- 
tucky from  Virginia,  and  forming  a  separate  govern- 
ment, and  to  give  publicity  to  the  proceedings  of  the  con- 
vention, it  is  deemed  essential  to  have  a  printing  press."  ^ 
Here,  in  the  wilderness,  we  see  how  strong  was  the  idea 
that  "  publicity  "  w^as  an  essential  of  popular  govern- 
ment. 

Lexington,  the  most  important  town  west  of  the  moun- 
tains, offered  inducements  in  the  way  of  free  land  to  the 
printers.  "  John  Bradford  brought  a  printing  press  down 
the  river  on  a  flat-boat,  had  some  type  cut  out  of  dog- 
wood, *  and  on  August  II,  1787,  the  Kentucky  Gazette 
was  issued,  with  the  follow^ing  editorial  apology: 

"  My  customers  will  excuse  this,  my  first  publication, 
as  I  am  very  much  hurried  to  get  an  impression  by  the 
time  appointed.  A  great  part  of  the  type  fell  into  pi  in 
the  carriage  of  them  from  Limestone  (Maysville)  to  this 
ofiice,  and  my  partner,  which  is  the  only  assistant  I  have, 
through  indisposition  of  the  body,  has  been  incapable  of 
rendering  the  smallest  assistance  for  ten  days  past." 

Despite  the  wild  condition  of  the  country,  the  demand 
fdr  newspapers  increased  to  such  an  extent  that,  in  1793, 
as  we  have  noted,  the  state  was  manufacturing  its  own 
paper.  Newspapers  were  started  in  every  part  of  the 
state  where  there  were  a  few  civilized  beings.  The  rage 
for  journalistic  expression  is  shown  in  the  way  the  papers 
sprang  up  in  these  towns  and  hamlets : 

1798  The  Mirror,  Washington 

1798  The  Palladium,  Frankfort 

1798  Guardian  of  Freedom,  Frankfort 

1798  Kentucky  Telegraph 

1803  Western  American,  Bardstown 

1803  Independent  Gazette,  Lexington 

^Pioneer  Press  of  Kentucky,  9. 

«  Roosevelt,  Winning  of  the  West,  iii,  229. 


2o6  HISTORY  OF  JOURNALISM 

1803  Weekly  Messenger,  Washington 

1804  Republican  Register,  Shelbyville 

1804  TJie  Mirror,  Danville 

1805  The  Informant,  Danville 

1806  Republican  Auxiliary,  Washington 
1806  IV  est  em  World,  Frankfort 

1806  The  Impartial  Review,  BardstOM^n 

1806  The  Mirror,  Russellville 

1808  The  Lamp,  Lincoln  County 

1808  Argus  of  Western  America,  Frankfort 

1808  Louisville  Gasetfe,  Louisville 

1808  The  Reporter,  Lexington 

1808  Western  Citizen,  Paris 

1809  Farmer's  Friend,  Russellville 
1809  Political  Theater,  Lancaster 
1809  The  Dove,  Washington 

1809  The  Globe,  Richmond 

1810  The  Examiner,  Lancaster 
1810    American  Republic,  Frankfort 

18 10  The  Luminary,  Richmond 

181 1  American  Statesman,  Lexington 
181 1     Western  Courier,  Louisville 

181 1     Bardstoivn  Repository,  Bardstown 
181 1     The  Telegraph,  Georgetown 

The  failure  of  the  Federal  government  in  1797  to  back 
up  the  ambitions  of  Kentucky  led  the  powerful  men  of 
the  state,  through  their  organ,  the  Gazette,  the  only  paper 
thus  far  published  in  the  state,  to  attack  the  administration 
fiercely,  and  even  General  Washington  himself.  Writers 
then  declared  that,  if  the  Federal  government  did  not 
take  Louisiana  and  put  an  end  to  the  intolerable  situa- 
tion, they,  themselves,  would  make  the  conquest  of  Louisi- 
ana. It  was  in  this  way  that  the  Federalists,  by  their  in- 
difTerence  to  the  demands  of  the  west,  lost  control  over 
a  large  section  of  the  country.  "^ 

Joseph  H.  Daveiss,  District  Attorney,  in  his  loyalty  to 
the  Union,  attempted  to  arouse  the  community  when  he 

^  Roosevelt,  Winning  of  the  West,  iv,  202. 


EMIGRATION  AND  THE  PAPERS  OF  THE  WEST     207 

found  that  Jefferson  was  indifferent  to  the  machinations 
of  Aaron  Burr,  who,  after  kilhng  Hamilton,  had  wan- 
dered west.  Daveiss  twice  presented  Burr  for  treason 
to  the  grand  jury,  and  twice  the  grand  jury  declared  in 
Burr's  favor.  The  leading  Democrats  of  Kentucky  were 
Burr's  friends,  while  Henry  Clay  acted  as  his  counsel, 
Daveiss,  however,  through  the  advent  of  two  new  set- 
tlers, was  able  to  have  a  newspaper  which  exposed  the 
treason  of  Burr  and  aroused  the  public. 

It  was  in  the  summer  of  1805  that  there  arrived  in 
Frankfort,  Kentucky,  two  pedestrians  from  far-off  Vir- 
ginia. John  Wood  had  been  a  writer  on  the  New  York 
papers  and  had  been  connected  with  Aaron  Burr;  later 
he  had  gone  to  Virginia,  where  he  had  interested  a  young 
man  named  Joseph  Montford  Street  and  to  him  proposed 
starting  a  newspaper  either  in  Kentucky  or  at  New  Or- 
leans. Because  of  political  enemies  in  New  York, 
Wood's  part,  it  was  explained,  must  necessarily  be  a 
secret  one.  With  the  assistance  of  William  Hunter,  the 
editor  of  the  Palladium,  who  allowed  them  to  print  their 
paper  on  his  press,  and  with  materials  obtained  from  the 
editor  of  a  paper  published  at  Lexington,  the  first  number 
of  the  Western  World  appeared  on  July  5,  1806.  The 
paper  was  innocent-looking  enough  from  a  modern 
standpoint.  The  first  article  was  entitled  the  ''  Spanish 
Conspiracy  " ;  it  aroused  great  excitement.  Street  was 
kept  busy  receiving  challenges  to  duels,  and  finally  noti- 
fied the  public  that  he  would  file  all  challenges  in  the 
order  received  and  "  from  time  to  time  give  a  list  of  them 
in  the  Western  World  for  the  information  of  the  public 
at  large."  Not  all  of  his  opponents,  however,  gave  him 
an  opportunity  to  defend  himself,  for  one  legislator  en- 
deavored to  assassinate  him. 

Street's  next  sensation  was  to  further  the  prosecution 


2o8  HISTORY  OF  JOURNALISM 

of  Burr;  when  Burr  was  acquitted  and  a  ball  was  given 
in  honor  of  this  event,  Street  was  forcibly  ejected  from 
the  ball-room.  The  success  of  the  Western  World,  how- 
ever, was  such  that,  at  the  end  of  its  fourth  month,  it 
had  a  circulation  of  1,200,  which  was  a  most  ample 
demonstration  of  its  popularity.  Meantime  Street's 
partner.  Wood,  had  sold  out  and  tried  to  corrupt  him. 
Failing  in  this.  Wood  left  Frankfort  for  Washington  and 
became  attached  to  the  cause  of  Burr,  who  had  been  de- 
nounced  by  President  Jefferson,  his  arrest  following 
shortly  afterward.  Street  kept  up  the  fight  alone  as  best 
he  could,  but  was  finally  impoverished  by  libel  suits,  and 
left  the  state  to  work  among  the  Indians  of  Wisconsin, 
among  whom  he  did  notable  service.  ^ 

More  than  ordinary  importance  attaches  to  the  date  of 
the  first  newspaper  in  the  Northwest  Territory,  later  to  be 
known  as  the  states  of  Ohio,  Indiana,  and  Illinois.  Here 
were  to  be  the  most  effective  forces  in  later  American 
journalism;  here  the  printer  had  no  social  disfavor  to 
work  down;  here  he  was  a  desirable  member  of  the  com- 
munity, even  a  necessary  one,  and  the  character  of  the 
men  who  had  become  conspicuous  editors  in  this  section 
was  such  as  to  give  the  community  that  they  represented 
a  country-wide  reputation  far  beyond  what  it  would  have 
achieved  in  the  old  days  when  population  was  the  sole 
method  of  determining  a  city's  importance. 

'The  historic  relation  between  the  post-ofHce  and  the 
printing  ofifice,  established  by  Campbell  in  1704,  persisted, 
as  might  be  expected  in  a  pioneer  country  where  brawn 
was  the  first  requisite  and  where  those  with  the  literary- 
political  leaning  would  be  few  and  in  demand.  The 
printer-editor,  in  addition  to  his  educational  qualifications 
for  the  postmastership  of  the  place  in  which  he  settled, 

8  Register,  Kentucky  State  Historical  Society,  iv,  No.  12,  25. 


EMIGRATION  AND  THE  PAPERS  OF  THE  WEST     209 

had  also  the  fact  that  by  training  he  was  something  of  a 
poHtician  and  knew  how  to  obtain  Federal  recognition. 

William  Maxwell,  the  second  postmaster  of  Cincin- 
nati, established  the  first  newspaper  in  that^own  and 
incidentally  the  first  in  the  Northwest,  -^^^is  was  the 
Centinel  of  the  Northwest  Territory,  issued  for  the  first 
time  November  9,  1793.  In  1796  Maxwell  sold  the 
Centinel  to  Edmond  Freeman,  who  changed  the  name  to 
Freeman's  Journal.  In  1800  it  was  moved  to  Chillicothe, 
the  new  capital  of  the  Territory,  and  in  October,  1801, 
Nathaniel  Willis  bought  Freeman's  Journal,  merging  it 
with  his  Scioto  Gazette,  which  continues  under  that  name 
at  the  present  time.  Joseph  Carpenter  brought  out  the 
Western  Spy  and  Hamilton  Gazette,  May  28,  1799,  at 
Cincinnati,  changing  the  name  in  1806  to  the  Western 
Spy  and  Miami  Gazette.  It  was  six  years  after  the  es- 
tablishment of  the  first  paper  that  the  first  General  As- 
sembly of  the  Northwest  Territory  met  at  Cincinnati,  a 
small  settlement  of  seven  hundred  and  fifty  people,  sur- 
rounded by  dense  and  impenetrable  forests  of  the  Miami 
country. 

In  1 8 10  there  were  sixteen  newspapers  in  Ohio;  already 
vigorous  men  were  identified  with  the  journalism  of  the 
state.  The  Rev.  John  W.  Brown,  a  strong  Jeffersonian, 
established  in  1804  at  Cincinnati  a  little  sheet  known  as 
Liberty  Hall  and  Cincinnati  Mercury,  which  paper  very 
shortly  afterwards  took  into  its  office  as  apprentice 
Stephen  I'Hommedieu,  who  was  later  to  become  its  pro- 
prietor. L'Hommedieu,  with  Charles  Hammond  and 
William  D.  Gallagher,  later  gave  vigorous  support  to 
the  Free-soil  cause  in  a  community  which  might,  because 
of  material  interests,  have  been  led  to  side  with  the  slave 
states. 

Charles  Hammond  was  one  of  the  ablest  journalists  of 


2IO  HISTORY  OF  JOURNALISM 

the  country,  also  a  distinguished  lawyer.  It  was  said  of 
him  that  "  he  spoke  at  the  bar  as  good  English  as  Addi- 
son wrote  in  the  Spectator/'  He  started  the  Ohio  Fed- 
eralist in  Belmont  County,  Ohio,  in  iS'13,  and  moved 
to  Cincinnati  in  1826,  where  he  became  the  first  edi- 
tor of  the  Cincinnati  Gazette.  Later  he  became 
a  man  of  considerable  influence  in  the  city,  dis- 
playing his  independence  in  many  ways,  one  of  which 
was  by  wearing  a  long  queue  in  contempt  for  social 
usages.  He  was  a  vigorous  advocate  of  a  free  press  and 
one  of  the  few  who  realized  that  the  slave-holding  power, 
in  endeavoring  to  throttle  the  press,  was  showing  a  greater 
arrogance  than  had  ever  before  been  shown  on  this  con- 
tinent. In  the  editorial  columns  of  his  paper  he  argued 
on  great  questions  of  constitutional  law,  and  his  ability, 
scholarship,  and  intellect  affected  the  character  of  Ohio 
journalism. 

He  was  a  member  of  the  first  abolition  society  in 
Ohio,  which  was  organized  at  Mt.  Pleasant  by  Benjamin 
Lundy.  It  was  Hammond,  as  we  shall  see,  who  de- 
manded a  fair  hearing  for  James  G.  Birney,  when  the 
abolitionist  went  to  Cincinnati  to  begin  his  fight  against 
slavery.  The  editor  of  the  Gazette  saw  that  the  slave- 
owners were  striking  at  the  freedom  of  the  press  in  their 
demands  that  the  abolition  editors  must  be  muzzled,  and 
his  pen  was  one  of  the  most  forceful  in  the  country 
against  any  endeavor  to  stop  public  discussion.  He  pro- 
vided Birney  with  much  of  the  material  that  was  used 
to  show  that  the  slave-owners  were  intimidating  and  as- 
saulting writers  who  dared  discuss  the  subject  of  slavery. 

The  settlement  of  the  land  beyond  the  Ohio  was  helped 
by  untoward  conditions  in  the  east,  where  hard  times, 
in  18 14,  had  increased  taxation.  Liability  to  arrest  for 
indebtedness  caused  many  to  sell  everything  they  had  and 


EMIGRATION  AND  THE  PAPERS  OF  THE  WEST     21 1 

to  move  west,  to  the  Great  Lakes  and  to  the  eastern  slope 
of  the  Mississippi  valley.  Mt.  Pleasant,  in  Jefferson 
County,  Ohio,  which  in  i8io  was  a  hamlet  of  seven 
families,  in  1815  contained  ninety  families,  three  taverns 
and  seven  stores,  a  meeting  house,  a  school  house,  and 
a  market  house ;  within  six  miles  were  two  grist-mills, 
twelve  saw-mills,  and  a  paper-mill.  In  a  very  short  time 
there  was  a  weekly  newspaper,  without  which  no  com- 
munity at  that  time  was  complete.  This  was  but  one  of 
many  similar  instances  of  rapid  growth,  the  emigration 
fever  becoming  so  strong  that  it  was  said  that  in  one 
day  in  18 18,  there  waited  in  Pittsburgh  several  thousand 
emigrants  and  goods  worth  $3,000,000  to  be  floated  down 
the  river. 

In  18 1 7  the  distress  throughout  the  country  was  so 
great  that  the  public  were  asked  to  donate  fruit  and 
vegetables,  as  well  as  money,  to  take  care  of  the  starving. 
Soup-houses  sprang  up  in  a  number  of  cities  and  men 
labored,  not  for  salary,  but  for  their  daily  food.  Sugar 
had  risen  from  12  cents  to  25  cents  per  pound,  and  coffee 
from  18  cents  to  37  cents  a  pound. 

The  immigration  that  followed  caused  the  new  settlers, 
when  once  in  their  new  homes,  to  look  back  east  with 
critical  and  questioning  eyes,  and  with  strong  feelings 
against  conditions  that  they  believed  should  not  have 
existed. 

The  feeling  that  the  east  was  not  so  favorable  to  the 
development  of  the  west  had  a  great  influence  in  develop- 
ing an  independent  western  journalism.  It  was  first  evi- 
denced in  the  debate  begun  by  Thomas  E.  Benton  in  the 
Senate,  in  January,  1830.  The  opposition  of  the  east 
to  the  west  was  ascribed  to  the  fact  that  emigration  was 
so  great  that  the  east  feared  that  there  would  be  no 
men  to  work  their  factories.     It  was  the  continuation 


212  HISTORY  OF  JOURNALISM 

of  this  argument  that  led  Senator  Robert  Young 
Hayne,  of  South  CaroHna,  to  make  a  speech  along 
similar  lines,  attacking  the  owners  of  the  woolen- 
mills  and  cotton- factories  in  the  east  on  the  ground 
that  they  wished  to  keep  the  people  paupers  so 
that  they  might  make  money.  This  speech  of  Hayne 
was  the  beginning  of  another  nullification  movement. 
It  brought  about  Webster's  famous  reply  in  which,  meet- 
ing Hayne's  threat  that  the  west  and  the  south  might 
unite  to  oppose  the  east,  Webster  spoke  for  the  Union. 

Despite  the  importance  of  the  Webster-Hay ne  debate, 
not  a  word  of  it  appeared  in  the  Washington  journals 
for  two  weeks,  and  a  month  went  by  before  it  was  pub- 
lished in  the  newspapers  of  Philadelphia;  it  was  this 
slowness  in  printing  news  when  the  public  mind  was  be- 
coming active  and  demanding  action,  that  led  to  the  in- 
troduction of  real  newspapers  such  as  those  of  Bennett 
and  Greeley. 

Between  1810  and  1820  the  population  of  the  seaboard 
states  suffered  an  actual  decrease,  due  to  migration ;  dur- 
ing the  decade  1820- 1830,  however,  there  was  an  increase 
on  account  of  immigration  from  Europe  and  a  temporary 
cessation  of  westward  migration.  On  account  of  this 
lessened  immigration,  the  newspapers  of  Indiana  and  Illi- 
nois did  not  increase  in  number  with  the  rapidity  that 
had  marked  Ohio's  development. 

The  first  newspaper  in  Indiana  appeared  in  1804  at 
Vincennes,  which  was  then  the  capital  of  the  territory. 
Elihu  Stout,  a  printer  on  the  Kentucky  Gazette,  went  to 
Vincennes  to  see  what  the  prospects  were  for  printing  a 
paper,  and  was  so  encouraged  by  the  citizens  and  officials 
that  he  immediately  returned  to  Frankfort,  purchased  his 
outfit  and,  in  July,  1804,  issued  the  first  number  of  the 
Indiana  Gazette, 


EMIGRATION  AND  THE  PAPERS  OF  THE  WEST     213 

It  became,  in  fact,  a  common  occurrence  for  the  town 
itself,  where  no  individual  showed  a  willingness  to  as- 
sume the  financial  obligations,  to  offer  inducements  to 
printers.  The  consequent  demand  for  their  services  made 
it  easy  for  journeyman  printers  to  find  employment  wher- 
ever they  went;  this  soon  produced  an  itinerant  class  of 
printers,  who  gave  to  their  trade  a  character  and  a  repu- 
tation that  outlasted,  for  many  generations,  the  settling 
of  the  country  in  which  they  had  so  striking  a  part.^ 

The  speed  with  which  the  towns  developed  was  a  source 
of  amazement  to  travelers  from  eastern  cities.  The  town 
of  Vevay,  Indiana,  was  laid  out  in  1813,  in  1814  it  was  a 
mere  collection  of  huts  —  two  years  later  it  was  a  pros- 
perous county  seat  with  a  court-house,  a  school-house, 
and  seventy-five  dwellings,  and  was  the  boasted  possessor 
of  a  weekly  newspaper  called  the  Indiana  Register}^ 

The  founder  of  the  first  paper  in  Indianapolis  has  left 
behind  a  picture  of  the  manner  in  which  the  settlers  of 
the  west  looked  to  the  newspapers  as  an  inevitable  ac- 
companiment to  a  real  live  town.  In  182 1  the  site  of 
Indianapolis  was  selected  as  the  permanent  seat  of  gov- 
ernment for  the  new  state.  Two  hundred  persons  im- 
mediately moved  there,  and  within  a  year  Nathaniel  Bol- 
ton announced  the  publication  of  the  Indianapolis  Ga- 
zette, gotten  out  in  a  buckeye  log  cabin  of  but  one  room, 
'*  part  of  which  was  occupied  for  a  family  residence." 
The  ink  was  put  on  with  balls  made  of  dressed  deerskin, 
stuffed  with  wool.  There  was  no  post-office  nearer  than 
Connersville,  a  distance  of  sixty  miles,  and  every  four 
weeks  a  person  was  employed  to  bring  the  letters  and 
other  mail.  President  Monroe's  message,  delivered  in 
December,    arrived    at    Indianapolis    in    February,    and 

•  See  Charles  Edward  Russell,  These  Shifting  Scenes. 
10  McMaster,  History,  iv,  385. 


214  HISTORY  OF  JOURNALISM 

furnished,  for  three  succeeding  numbers  of  the  Gazette, 
a  thrilHng  serial.  ^^ 

Nor  was  this  an  unusual  condition,  even  in  the  east. 
An  elderly  relative  of  the  writer  remembers  the  time 
when  her  father,  once  every  two  months,  walked  sixty 
miles  along  the  Susquehanna  River  from  Laceyville  to 
Wilkesbarre,  Pennsylvania,  to  get  the  mail  and  the  news- 
papers of  the  large  cities. 

In  Illinois  the  development  came  later,  and  was  marked 
by  a  lively  interest  in  the  Free  Soil  movement.  The  first 
General  Assembly  of  Illinois  convened  at  Kaskaskia  on 
October  5,  18 18,  and  John  McLean  of  Shawneetown  was 
the  candidate  for  governor  at  the  first  election.  In  18 16 
his  rival,  Daniel  Pope  Cook,  who  favored  the  Free  Soil 
party,  became  part  owner  of  the  Illinois  Intelligencer,  the 
first  newspaper  in  the  territory."  ^^ 

Other  early  newspapers  printed  in  the  state  were  in 
their  order,  the  Illinois  Emigrant,  published  by  Henry 
Eddy  and  Singleton  H.  Kimmel  at  Shawneetown  in  18 18, 
its  name  being  changed  to  the  Illinois  Gazette  in  i824;  the 
Edwardsville  Spectator,  by  Hopper  Warren  in  18 19;  the 
Star  of  the  West,  at  the  same  place  in  1822,  changed  to 
the  Illinois  Republican  in  1823 ;  the  Republican  Advocate 
at  Kaskaskia  in  1823,  by  R.  K.  Fleming;  the  Illinois  Jour- 
nal at  Galena,  by  James  Jones  in  1826;  the  Sangamon 
Spectator  at  Springfield,  the  same  year,  by  Hopper  War- 
ren; the  Illinois  Corrector  at  Edwardsville  in  1828;  the 
Galena  Advertiser  by  Newell,  Philleo  &  Co.,  in  1829;  the 
Alton  Spectator  in  1830,  by  Edward  Breath;  the  Tele- 
graph  at  the  same  place,  by  Parks  and  Treadway,  after- 
wards controlled  by  John  Bailhache,  and  still  a  leading 
paper  in  Madison  County;  the  Sangamon  Journal,  now 

11  Bolton  Early  History  of  Indianapolis. 

12  Moses,  Illinois,  i,  294. 


EMIGRATION  AND  THE  PAPERS  OF  THE  WEST     215 

the  State  Journal,  in  1831,  by  Simeon  Francis  (and  con- 
ducted by  him  until  1855)  the  publication  of  which  has 
been  uninterruptedly  continued  until  the  present  time; 
and  the  Chicago  Democrat,  by  John  Calhoun,  at  Chicago 
in  1833.  This  last  was  later  merged  in  the  Chicago 
Tribune,  the  paper  made  famous  by  Joseph  Medill,  to 
whom  we  shall  refer  later. 

In  the  northern  section  of  the  Northwest  Territory,  in 
what  is  now  Michigan,  the  first  newspaper  appeared  in 
1809,  in  French  and  English.  The  first  English  paper 
in  Detroit  appeared  in  1829  and  was  called  the  North- 
western Journal;  it  was  later  consolidated  with  the  De- 
troit Advertiser  and  Tribune,  now  the  Detroit  Tribune. 
At  the  start,  the  Journal  was  a  Whig  paper,  established 
by  friends  of  John  Quincy  Adams  to  fight  the  Democratic 
party.  To  this,  the  opposition  made  answer  two  years 
later,  in  May,  183 1,  by  the  establishment  of  the  Detroit 
Free  Press,  one  of  the  country's  famous  and  most  suc- 
cessful newspapers.  > 

As  early  as  1808  the  first  paper  west  of  the  Mississippi, 
the  Missouri  Gazette,  was  founded  by  Joseph  Charles 
in  St.  Louis.  The  place  was  then  a  mere  trading  post, 
and  it  was  announced  that  subscriptions  were  "  payable  in 
flour,  corn,  beef  or  pork."  ^^ 

This  paper  afterwards  became  the  St.  Louis  Republic, 
one  of  the  leading  papers  of  the  west.  When  the  ques- 
tion of  Missouri's  admission  to  the  union  came  up,  the 
territory's  newspapers,  the  Missouri  Intelligencer,  the  St. 
Louis  Gazette,  the  St.  Louis  Enquirer,  the  St.  Charles 
Missourian  and  the  Jackson  Herald  united  in  vigorous 
editorial  objections  to  congressional  restriction,  showing 
that  the  pro-slavery  element  was  stronger  in  the  state 
than   were   those  opposed   to   the   extension  of  slavery. 

13  Thwaites.  in  Proceedings  of  the  Antiquarian  Society  xix  348. 


2i6  HISTORY  OF  JOURNALISM 

[The  statistics  of  1835  show  how  remarkably  this 
western  territory  had  taken  to  journaHsm.  Even  Mis- 
souri had  seventeen  papers  with  an  annual  <:irculation  of 
720,000  copies.  Illinois,  young  state  that  it  was,  had 
eighteen,  as  many  as  Louisiana,  where  the  first  paper  in 
French,  La  Moniteur  de  la  Louisiane,  had  been  printed 
in  1794,  and  the  first  one  in  English,  the  Gazette,  in  1804. 
Indiana  had  twenty-three  papers,  while  Ohio  had  one 
hundred  and  forty-five,  and  was  only  exceeded  by  New 
York  and  Pennsylvania,  with  two  hundred  sixty  and  two 
hundred,  respectively.  Even  Massachusetts,  the  home  of 
American  newspapers,  came  after  this  progressive  state, 
while  Virginia,  oldest  of  colonies,  had  only  forty  papers, 
less  than  a  fourth  of  Ohio's  countT^ 

In  noting  the  manner  in  which  these  new  northern 
states  outstripped  the  southern  states  in  the  growth  of 
newspapers  it  is  well  to  remember  that  slavery  was  for- 
bidden in  the  former  by  the  Ordinance  of  1787.  To  this 
resolution  Webster  traced  much  of  the  character  of  the 
people  of  this  section. 

"  We  are  accustomed,"  he  said,  "  to  praise  the  law- 
givers of  antiquity;  we  help  to  perpetuate  the  fame  of 
Solon  and  Lycurgus ;  but  I  doubt  whether  one  single  law 
of  any  law-giver,  ancient  or  modern,  has  produced  effects 
of  more  distinct,  marked,  and  lasting  character  than  the 
Ordinance  of  1787.  ...  It  fixed  forever  the  character 
of  the  population  in  the  vast  regions  northwest  of  the 
Ohio,  by  excluding  from  them  involuntary  servitude.  It 
impressed  on  the  soil  itself,  while  yet  a  wilderness,  an 
incapacity  to  sustain  any  other  than  freemen.  It  laid 
the  interdict  against  personal  servitude,  in  original  com- 
pact, not  only  deeper  than  all  local  law,  but  deeper  also 
than  all  local  constitutions."  ^* 

1*  Rhodes,  History  of  the  United  States,  i,  16. 


CHAPTER  XVI 

SUFFRAGE  AND  SLAVERY 

Restrictions  on  suffrage  —  Gradual  removal  of  limitations  — 
President  Monroe's  tour  of  the  country  —  Awakening  of 
American  spirit  —  Anti-Masonic  papers  —  Beginning  of  cru- 
sade against  slavery  —  Benjamin  Lundy  and  William  Lloyd 
Garrison  —  James  G.  Birney  —  Endeavor  to  muzzle  anti- 
slavery  press  —  Charles  Hammond's  influence  assists  Birney 
—  Lovejoy  murder  —  Negro  publications. 

Important  as  was  the  opening-up  of  the  country  geo- 
graphically, still  more  remarkable  were  the  political  and 
social  developments  that  came  as  a  direct  result  of  the 
belief  in  the  democratic  theory. 

While  the  fathers  of  the  Republic  were  firm  believers 
in  the  political  ideas  which  they  had  proclaimed,  no  at- 
tempt was  made  by  them  to  put  into  practice,  in  the  state 
governments,  such  theories  as  that  of  the  equality  of  all 
men.  It  was  to  the  state  governments,  however,  that 
the  Constitution  later  delegated  the  right  to  say  what 
should  be  the  qualifications  for  electors. 

The  consequence  was  that,  when  the  Federal  Consti- 
tution was  adopted,  the  men  who  sat  as  delegates  from 
the  states  were  there  more  as  representatives  of  the  tax- 
payers than  of  the  people  at  large.  Thus,  for  example, 
the  Massachusetts  Senate  consisted  of  forty  men,  appor- 
tionment among  the  counties  being  based  on  the  amount 
of  taxes  each  county  paid.  ^ 

Only  in  Vermont  did  full  manhood  suffrage  exist,  while 
elsewhere  the  voter  had  to  be  a  taxpayer.     In  the  same 

1  McMaster,  History,  v,  376. 

217 


2i8  HISTORY  OF  JOURNALISM 

way,  while  liberty  of  conscience  was  guaranteed  to  all, 
in  many  states  Catholics  could  not  hold  office,  and,  in 
most  of  them,  the  Jews  were  disfranchised. 

The  extension  of  manhood  suffrage  was  an  inevitable 
result  of  the  assumption  of  political  power  by  the  press; 
indeed,  it  was  the  next  logical  step.  With  a  suffrage 
based  on  the  old  ideas  of  property  qualifications  and 
special  religious  privileges,  a  free  and  untrammeled  press 
was  impossible,  and  it  was  equally  true  that  a  free  press 
meant  the  breaking  down  of  the  privileged  class.  The 
paper  with  the  large  circulation  was  a  power  in  the  com- 
munity, and  it  derived  its  power,  not  from  the  influential 
but  from  the  non-voters. 

Between  1790  and  1800  religious  qualifications  were 
abohshed  in  many  states;  between  1800  and  18 10  there 
was  a  broadening  of  the  suffrage  and,  in  the  second  decade 
of  the  century,  when  six  states  were  admitted  into  the 
union,  the  property  qualifications  were  done  away  with 
in  a  number,  while  throughout  the  entire  country  there 
was  a  steady  movement  to  extend  the  rights  of  the  people. 
In  the  three  states  —  Mississippi,  Connecticut  and  New 
York  —  legislation  was  passed  admitting,  in  libel  suits, 
a  defense  on  the  ground  of  the  truth  of  the  allegation. 

The  generation  that  had  fought  at  Bunker  Hill  and 
Yorktown  was  passing  away.  The  citizens  of  the  states 
that  were  entering  the  union  were  the  new  type.  They 
had  none  of  the  old  prejudices  in  their  consitutions ;  they 
were  democratic  and  modern.  Franchise  was  based  on 
manhood.  If  there  was  a  class  distinction,  it  was  between 
those  who  fought  for  their  rights  and  those  who  were 
weaklings. 

In  18 1 6  there  was  a  protest  against  the  caucus  method 
of  nominating  and  the  Republican  party  was  split  by  the 
difference  of  opinion,  but  even  those  who  upheld  this 


SUFFRAGE  AND  SLAVERY  219 

method  as  advocates  of  Monroe's  nomination,  admitted 
that  it  was  not  truly  representative  of  the  people.  This 
in  itself  was  an  indication  of  the  growing  democracy  of 
the  times. 

To  answer  this  growing  democracy  Monroe  did  what 
no  other  president  since  Washington  had  done,  he  started 
out  to  show  himself  to  the  people.  From  Philadelphia 
he  went  to  New  York,  from  New  York  to  New  Haven, 
Hartford  and  Providence ;  to  Boston,  to  New  Hampshire 
and  Vermont;  to  Niagara  Falls,  to  Buffalo,  to  Detroit 
and  then  back  home.  He  was  the  first  president  to  see 
his  country  as  it  was,  the  president  of  an  era  of  good 
feeling  for  which  he  was  so  largely  responsible. 

There  was  much  loose  thinking,  but  still  it  was  think- 
ing. In  the  Nashville  Gazette,  in  January,  1822,  the  idea 
was  advanced  that  Andrew  Jackson,  the  new  type  of  man 
—  the  man  representing,  not  the  old  ''  dynasty  of  the  Sec- 
retaries "  but  the  people  who  were  developing  the  coun- 
try —  should  be  nominated  for  president.  ^  It  was  in 
the  election  of  1824  that  the  people  first  began  to  show 
a  deep  interest  in  the  choice  of  a  president.  Up  to  that 
time  it  may  be  truly  said  that  the  elections  were  handled 
for  the  people.  Now,  with  the  increased  freedom  and 
the  broadening  of  the  franchise,  clubs  were  being  formed, 
and  small  groups,  composed  of  those  who  had  formerly 
been  considered  ridiculous  as  political  factors,  now  came 
into  existence.  In  New  York,  in  which  property  qualifi- 
cations for  voters  were  abolished  by  a  new  constitution 
adopted  in  1821,  organizations  of  the  formerly  dis- 
franchised sprang  into  being  within  a  year. 

The  spread  of  interest  in  human  rights  was  evidence 
that  the  leaven  of  democracy  was  working.  Moreover, 
the  rise  of  the  liberal  movement  in  Europe,   following 

2  McMaster,  History,  v,  57. 


220  HISTORY  OF  JOURNALISM 

the  formation  of  the  Holy  Alliance  and  the  endeavor  on 
the  part  of  the  Holy  Allies  to  suppress  liberal  thought, 
had  its  reaction  in  America.  The  storm  aroused  through- 
out the  South  American  republics,  leading  up  to  the 
enunciation  of  the  Monroe  Doctrine  by  President  Monroe, 
awakened  the  thoughts  of  the  people,  who  had  never  taken 
much  cognizance  of  political  matters  except  those  im- 
mediately surrounding  them.  Americans  began  to  be 
conscious  of  the  fact  that  they  had  stimulated  the  world. 
They  began  to  realize  that  they  had  established  a  democ- 
racy that  was  affecting  the  world  and,  as  they  saw  the 
reaction,  there  came  pride  and  conscious  power  and  a 
greater  determination  to  spread  that  power  among  the 
people.  Foreign  visitors  declared  that  they  had  never 
seen  such  a  proud,  conceited  people  as  these  Americans. 

Part  of  the  same  liberalizing  movement  was  evidenced 
in  a  revival  of  religious  feeling,  which  began  in  1815 
and  was  coincident  with  the  formation  of  many  philan- 
thropic societies,  among  which  were  the  Colonization, 
Tract,  Bible,  Foreign  Mission,  Home  Mission,  Sailors' 
Friend  and  Peace  Societies.  It  was  the  time,  too,  when 
asylums,  hospitals  and  libraries  were  founded  and  when 
there  began  to  be  great  interest  in  the  public  school  sys- 
tem. 

One  of  the  most  interesting  of  these  signs  was  the 
appearance  of  a  labor  party,  following  which  came  labor 
papers  in  numbers.  Among  the  first  of  these  was  the 
Workingman's  Gazette,  appearing  in  October,  1824,  ad- 
vocating many  things  that  were  considered  radical  in  those 
days,  such  as  free  education  and  the  abolition  of  imprison- 
ment for  debt. 

Many  and  strange  were  the  phases  of  the  reforming 
spirit  which  was  spreading  throughout  the  country,  re- 
sulting in  the  establishment  of  a  number  of  papers,  some 


SUFFRAGE  AND  SLAVERY  221 

of  which  lasted  but  a  short  time,  but  which  were,  in 
their  way,  an  influence  in  preparing  the  pubhc  for  the 
higher  issues.  Some  of  these  papers  were:  The  Tele- 
scope, (N'ew  York  City),  The  Spirit  of  the  Age,  (Roches- 
ter), Southern  Free  Press,  (Charleston.  S.  C. ),  The 
Spirit  of  the  Age,  (Tuscaloosa),  Free  Press,  (Wilming- 
ton, Del.),  The  Friend  of  Equal  Rights,  (New  York), 
and  the  Daily  Sentinel,  (New  York) . 

Given  a  cause  and  there  was  immediately  a  flood  of 
publicity.  It  was  the  newspaper  contract  made  in  March, 
1826,  between  William  Morgan  and  David  C.  Miller,  edi- 
tor of  the  Republican  Advocate  —  in  which  Morgan 
agreed  to  write  an  attack  exposing  the  secrets  of  the 
Masonic  craft  - —  that  led  to  the  mysterious  disappearance 
of  Morgan.  Almost  immediately  there  was  an  anti-Ma- 
sonic party,  and  a  powerful  party  it  became,  too,  with  its 
organs  and  its  fighting  journalists,  among  them  Thurlow 
Weed,  whose  Albany  Journal  was  started  as  an  anti- 
Masonic  paper. 

While  the  northwestern  territory  was  yet  in  process 
of  settlement,  a  movement  began  there, —  a  journalistic 
crusade,  in  fact  —  that  was  not  to  end  until  the  great 
Civil  War  had  rent  the  Union. 

All  history  is  more  or  less  dramatic,  but  the  American 
is  justified  in  the  feeling  that  the  great  elemental  qualities, 
the  qualities  that  abounded  in  the  wilderness  then  so  re- 
cently conquered,  have  appeared  also  in  the  doings  of  the 
conquerors  in  their  relation  with  their  fellow-men. 
Hardly,  it  would  seem,  had  the  original  settlers  finished 
building  up  communities  to  protect  them  from  the  savages 
and  wild  animals,  before  they  were  announcing,  to  a 
world  old  in  civilization  and  laws,  the  new  law  for  a  free 
press.  Before,  by  old  world  standards,  they  could  be 
presumed  to  crawl,  they  were  proclaiming  themselves  a 


222  HISTORY  OF  JOURNALISM 

defiant  nation  and  they  poured  into  the  wilderness  back 
of  their  shore  Hne,  new  conquerors. 

And  now,  though  the  paths  through  the-  forests  had 
hardly  been  cleared,  they  were  beginning  a  crusade  which 
would  have  dum founded  and  disheartened  the  Fathers  of 
the  Republic.  It  was  in  this  wild  west  that  obscure  in- 
dividuals were  to  begin  the  war  on  slavery.  Under 
Quaker  influence  the  Manumission  Society  of  Tennessee 
was  formed  in  Tennessee,  as  early  as  1814,  for  the  pur- 
pose of  compulsory  emancipation.  This  society  published 
at  Greenville  a  quarterly  paper  entitled  the  Manumission 
Journal. 

The  direct  product  of  that  organization  was  Benja- 
min Lundy.  He  was  not  a  practical  printer,  not  of  those 
with  whose  history  for  a  century  we  have  been  dealing; 
he  was  not  of  the  type  of  the  statesman  using  the  press 
for  his  political  ends,  nor  yet  of  the  scholar  drifting  into 
a  journalism  that  he  despised.  Lundy  was  a  journalist 
by  virtue  of  belief  in  the  democracy  that,  even  in  the  sec- 
ond decade  of  the  nineteenth  century,  had  become  a  more 
potent  influence  in  the  wilderness  of  Ohio  than  the  Sage  of 
Monticello  ever  dreamed  possible.  Forgotten  though 
Lundy  may  be,  it  is  well  to  remember  that  it  was  of  this 
obscure  saddler  and  editor  that  William  Lloyd  Garrison 
said,  ''  I  owe  everything  to  Benjamin  Lundy." 

A  native  of  New  York,  he  had,  while  learning  the 
saddler's  trade  at  Wheeling,  Virginia,  seen  the  misery  of 
slavery,  and  had  become  so  deeply  affected  that  in  181 5 
he  formed  an  anti-slavery  association,  called  the  Union 
Humane  Society,  at  St.  Clairsville,  Ohio.  He  was  an 
unassuming  Quaker,  without  eloquence  or  particular 
ability,  but  with  great  courage  and  great  faith  in  his 
cause.  He  wrote  appeals  to  the  anti-slavery  people 
throughout  the  country  to  form  similar  associations,  and 


SUFFRAGE  AND  SLAVERY        223 

began  to  write  articles  on  the  subject  for  the  Philan- 
thropist, a  paper  pubUshed  at  Ml.  Pleasant  by  a  Quaker 
named  Charles  Osborn  —  the  first  publication  in  this 
country  to  advocate  immediate  emancipation.  ^  Osborn 
having  sold  his  paper,  Lundy,  with  no  further  encourage- 
ment than  that  offered  by  its  list  of  subscribers,  decided 
to  start  another  anti-slavery  paper  at  Mt.  Pleasant.  He 
walked  ten  miles  to  Steubenville  with  the  manuscript,  and 
returned  on  foot,  carrying  on  his  back  the  entire  edition 
of  the  first  number  of  the  Genius  of  Universal  Emanci- 
pation. 

It  was  while  touring  the  country  in  search  of  new 
subscribers  that  he  met,  in  Boston,  William  Lloyd  Gar- 
rison, then  a  young  man  of  twenty-three.  Garrison,  after 
learning  to  set  type  in  the  office  of  the  Newbury  port  Her- 
ald, had  gone  to  Boston  to  act  as  sub-editor  of  the  A^a- 
tional  Philanthropist,  the  first  temperance  paper  in  the 
United  States.  Later  he  began  editing  a  paper  at  Ben- 
nington called  the  Journal  of  the  Times,  an  anti-slavery 
and  temperance  advocate.  Lundy  proposed  that  the  two 
should  join  forces,  which  they  did  at  Baltimore,  where 
the  anti-slavery  sentiment  was  very  strong,  and  in  Sep- 
tember, 1829,  the  publication  of  the  Genius  was  resumed. 

By  this  time  many  out-and-out  anti-slavery  publica- 
tions had  been  started.  Some  of  these  were:  The 
Philanthropist,  first  published  in  1817;  The  Emancipator, 
(Tennessee,  18 19)  ;  The  Genius  of  Universal  Emancipa- 
tion, (1821);  The  Abolition  Intelligencer,  (Kentucky, 
1822) ;  The  Edward sville  Spectator  and  the  Illinois  In- 
telligencer, 1822  and  1823  respectively;  The  African  Ob- 
server, (Philadelphia,  1826);  Freedom's  Journal,  (New 
York,  1827)  ;  The  National  Philanthropist,  (Boston, 
1826)  ;  The  Investigator,  (Providence,  1827) ;  The  Free 

8  McMaster,  v,  209. 


224  HISTORY  OF  JOURNALISM 

Press,  (Bennington,  1828) ;  and  the  Liberalist,  (New 
Orleans,  1828).  But  the  greatest  came  in  1831,  when 
Garrison,  only  twenty-six  years  of  age,  founded  the 
Liberator  and  began  his  historic  fight  on  slavery. 

The  attitude  of  the  Jackson  administration  in  encourag- 
ing the  slave-holding  power  to  dominate  the  country,  and 
the  action  of  Jackson's  Postmaster-General,  Amos  Ken- 
dall, in  countenancing  the  non-delivery  of  northern  news- 
papers in  which  there  were  abolition  sentiments  —  as  well 
as  the  burning  of  the  newspapers  in  the  public  square  of 
Charleston  in  1835, —  mean  that,  so  far  as  the  slave- 
holders were  concerned,  the  reign  of  public  opinion  was 
at  an  end  in  the  south.  The  post-office,  which  meant  the 
government,  here  directly  aligned  itself  with  the  small 
body  of  slaveholders  and  declared  that  sentiments  which 
were  objectionable  to  them  should  not  pass  through  the 
mails.  The  situation  would  be  equally  anomalous  if  we 
could  imagine  the  postmaster  of  the  City  of  New  York, 
in  which  Wall  Street  is  located,  taking  the  attitude,  in 
the  period  of  1901-1908,  that  the  western  newspapers 
attacking  the  so-called  "  interests  "  were  not  to  be  allowed 
within  the  city  because  of  their  criticism  of  various 
financial  concerns. 

During  the  winter  of  1835-1836  an  effort  was  made  in 
every  free  state  legislature  to  pass  bills  making  it  a  mis- 
demeanor to  publish  or  print  writings  that  could  be  con- 
strued as  inciting  the  slaves  to  rebellion.  The  vigilance 
committee  in  Louisiana  offered  $50,000  for  the  delivery 
of  Arthur  Tappan,  who,  with  other  abolitionists,  had 
started  the  New  York  Journal  of  Commerce  as  an  anti- 
slavery  paper  in  1827,  putting  at  the  head  of  it,  as  editor, 
a  Virginia  abolitionist,  William  Maxwell. 

To  cap  the  climax,  President  Jackson,  in  his  annual 
message  in  December,  1835,  recommended  to  Congress 


SUFFRAGE  AND  SLAVERY  225 

the  passage  of  a  law  that  would  "  prohibit,  under  severe 
penalties,  the  circulation  in  the  southern  states,  through 
the  mail,  of  incendiary  publications  intended  to  instigate 
the  slaves  to  insurrection."  That  part  of  the  message 
was  referred  to  a  committee  which  reported  a  bill  pro- 
hibiting the  circulation  of  any  newspaper  ''  touching  the 
subject  of  slavery,"  and  removing  forthwith  any  post- 
master who  distributed  such  newspapers.  This  bill,  how- 
ever, was  defeated  on  the  final  ballot,  although,  strange 
as  it  may  seem,  it  was  the  vote  of  a  New  Yorker,  Martin 
Van  Buren,  that  reported  it  out  of  committee.  The  leg- 
islatures of  the  free  states  adjourned  without  a  single  one 
of  them  having  passed  any  of  the  press-muzzling  laws 
that  had  been  submitted  to  them. 

This  attempt  to  stifle  free  discussion  marked  the  be- 
ginning of  the  end  of  inert  submission  by  the  free  state 
citizens  to  the  autocratic  domination  of  the  slave-holding 
power;  it  now  began  to  be  evident  to  many  of  those 
who  had  sat  quietly  on  the  side  lines  hoping  for  peace, 
that  when  that  power  could  dare  to  dictate  what  the 
North  could  print,  and  when  its  representatives  could  try 
to  pass  laws  limiting  the  expression  of  public  opinion  in 
public  print,  it  was  time  to  stop  hoping  for  a  peaceful  so- 
lution of  this  intricate  matter,  or  at  least  time  to  show 
some  courage  in  discussing  it. 

While  thoughtful  men  throughout  the  country  were  be- 
ginning to  look  at  the  slave  issue  in  this  light,  and  while 
northern  editors  were  turning  over  in  their  minds  the 
question  as  to  whether  a  policy  of  craven  silence  was, 
after  all,  the  best  one,  there  came  a  series  of  sensational 
events,  all  within  the  field  of  journalism  and  dealing  with 
men  identified  with  journalism,  which  aroused,  if  not  the 
public,  men  who  were  destined  in  turn  to  arouse  the  public. 

Few  reformers,  says  Barrett  Wendell,  have  lived  to 


226  HISTORY  OF  JOURNALISM 

such  complete  victory  as  did  William  Lloyd  Garrison, 
who,  when  he  died  in  1879,  had  been  for  fifteen  years  a 
national  hero.  His  fame  might  be  said  to  have  come 
to  him  as  a  result  of  his  having  lived  to  complete  his 
work,  whereas  his  co-laborer,  James  G.  Birney,  dying  be- 
fore the  Civil  War  began,  failed  to  obtain  even  post- 
humous reward,  although  he  so  richly  deserved  it. 

James  Gillespie  Birney  was  a  native  of  Kentucky,  born 
about  the  time  the  first  newspaper  presses  were  being 
carried  over  the  mountain  roads.  After  graduating  from 
Princeton,  he  had  practiced  law  and,  at  the  same  time  that 
Garrison  was  starting  the  Liberator,  had  become  con- 
vinced, from  his  own  accurate  knowledge  of  slavery,  that 
it  was  undermining  the  free  institutions  of  the  country 
and  endangering  the  union  of  the  states.  He  deter- 
mined to  liberate  the  few  slaves  that  he  owned  and  to 
move  to  Illinois,  ''  the  best  site  in  the  whole  world  for 
taking  a  stand  against  slavery."  ^  His  education,  ability 
and  firm  Christian  attitude  had  made  him  a  national 
character,  and  when,  in  the  spring  of  1836,  he  began 
the  publication  of  the  Philanthropist  in  Cincinnati,  inter- 
est was  shown  all  over  the  country  as  to  how  far  the 
threats  of  the  pro-slavery  element  would  be  carried  out. 

Birney,  in  his  paper,  did  more  than  a  host  of  editors  to 
show  the  North  that  the  slave  power  in  the  South  was 
not  content  with  holding  the  black  man  in  subjection.  In 
issue  after  issue  he  set  forth  facts  that  showed  that  free 
speech  and  the  free  press  were  threatened  by  those  in 
political  control  of  the  south.  The  speeches  of  the  gov- 
ernors of  Georgia,  South  Carolina  and  other  states  were 
printed  with  the  speeches  of  Calhoun  and  other  pro- 
slavery  statesmen ;  these  he  backed  up  with  editorials  from 
the  leading  papers  in  the  slave  states,  and  the  laws  passed 

*  Birney,  James  G.  Birney  and  His  Times,  131. 


SUFFRAGE  AND  SLAVERY  227 

in  slave  state  legislatures,  showing  that  freedom  of  speech 
and  of  the  press  was  gradually  being  destroyed.  Every 
time  that  a  southern  governor  or  southern  legislature 
passed  a  bill  demanding  that  the  northern  states  muzzle 
the  press  or  deliver  some  abolitionist  editor  to  a  southern 
governor  for  trial,  Birney  printed  the  demand  in  full. 

It  was  due  to  the  influence  of  Charles  Hammond,  editor 
of  the  Gazette,  that  Birney  was  permitted  to  remain  in 
Cincinnati  at  all.  The  Post,  the  Whig  and  the  Republi- 
can, the  three  papers  which  represented  the  Whig  and 
Democratic  parties,  abused  him  unmercifully,  and  one  of 
them  even  suggested  lynching. 

Amid  the  onslaught  on  Birney,  Hammond  administered 
to  his  fellow-editors  and  fellow-citizens  a  stern  rebuke 
and  emphatically  re-asserted  the  right  of  freedom  of 
speech  and  of  the  press,  declaring  forcibly  that,  if  Mr. 
Birney  wished  to  establish  a  paper  in  Cincinnati  and  to 
discuss  slavery,  it  was  his  right  to  do  so,  and  that  men 
who  should  attempt  to  molest  him  would  be  striking  at 
the  fundamental  principles  of  American  institutions. 
For  a  while  this  had  its  effect,  but  the  paper  had  not  been 
established  more  than  three  weeks  when  a  mob  broke 
into  the  press-room  and  destroyed  most  of  his  material. 

The  murder  of  Elijah  Lovejoy  next  stirred  the  coun- 
try. Love  joy  was  a  graduate  of  an  Eastern  college,  who 
had  gone  to  St.  Louis  and  had  become  the  editor  of  a 
Henry  Clay  paper.  In  1833  he  established  in  St  Louis 
a  religious  weekly  called  the  Observer,  in  which  he  made 
frequent  comments  on  slavery.  It  was  not  until  1835  that 
his  paper  became  the  subject  of  attack,  at  which  time  he, 
believing  that  it  would  be  better  to  publish  the  paper  on 
free  soil,  moved  his  press  over  to  Alton,  a  small  town 
across  the  river  in  Illinois. 

When  his  press  was  delivered  there,  a  mob  smashed  it 


228  HISTORY  OF  JOURNALISM 

to  pieces.  A  number  of  citizens  promised  to  make  good 
Love  joy's  losses,  a  new  press  was  brought  from  Cincin- 
nati, and  for  a  year  the  Observer  was  published  without 
molestation. 

In  July,  1837,  an  editorial  calling  for  the  formation  of 
a  state  anti-slavery  society  infuriated  the  pro-slavery  peo- 
ple and  a  mob  entered  the  office  and  destroyed  his  press 
and  type.  Love  joy  issued  an  appeal  for  funds  to  buy  a 
new  press.  The  money  was  raised ;  the  press  arrived  and, 
at  the  request  of  the  Mayor  of  the  town  it  was  turned 
over  to  him  for  safe  keeping.  No  sooner  was  this  done 
than  the  Mayor  allowed  the  mob  to  enter  the  warehouse 
where  the  press  was  stored.  They  smashed  it  into  pieces 
and  threw  the  important  parts  into  the  Mississippi. 

A  fourth  press  was  ordered  and  delivered  at  St.  Louis. 
Lovejoy  and  his  friends  gathered  to  protect  it;  while 
standing  near  the  door  of  the  warehouse,  Lovejoy  was 
shot  five  times  and  died  almost  immediately. 

The  northern  papers  almost  unanimously  denounced 
this  crime.  The  southern  papers  took  the  attitude  that 
Lovejoy  had  willfully  courted  destruction.  The  poli- 
ticians turned  their  attention  to  other  things,  but  it  marked 
the  beginning  of  the  end. 

Lundy,  Birney,  Lovejoy  and  Garrison  are  not  usually 
acclaimed  as  great  journalists,  but  it  is  due  to  the  spirit 
of  such  men  that  journalism  is  great  and  democracy  pos- 
sible. 

While  it  is  not  within  the  province  of  such  a  study  as 
this  to  go  into  special  developments  of  journalism,  it  is 
worth  pointing  out  that  it  was  not  the  white  man  alone 
who  was  developing  a  newspaper  war  against  slavery. 
The  negro  began  as  early  as  1827  to  print  his  own  paper, 
and  from  1827  to  1837  were  printed,  in  New  York  City, 
the  Freeman's  Jou/rnal,  the  Rights  of  All,  the  Colored 


SUFFRAGE  AND  SLAVERY  229 

American,  the  Elevator,  and  the  Ram's  Horn,  as  well 
as  the  National  Watchman  at  Troy,    New    York,    the 
Weekly  Advocate  at  Toronto,  Canada,  and  the  North 
Star,  published  by  Frederick  Douglas.  " 
5  Penn,  The  Afro-American  Press,  25. 


CHAPTER  XVII 

NEWSPAPERS  AND  THE  CAPITAL 

Semi-official  journals  —  Phases  of  Washington  press  —  First 
publications  —  Samuel  H.  Smith  —  The  National  Intelligencer 
—  Gales  and  Seaton  —  Jackson  establishes  the  Globe  —  Amos 
Kendall  —  Patronage  for  newspapers  —  Intelligencer  again 
in  favor  —  Change  in  attitude  toward  "  Official  Organs  "  — 
Conspicuous  Washington  correspondents. 

^  We  go  back  to  the  seat  of  government  to  follow,  prac- 
tically to  its  end,  the  direction  of  public  opinion  by  the 
heads  of  government,  through  semi-official  newspapers. 
Hamilton's  genius  conceived  the  idea  of  such  publica- 
tions,—  papers  that  should  direct  and  inform  the  public, 
at  the  same  time  guiding  them  gently  into  such  trains  of 
thought  as  were  desirable. 

We  know,  however,  that  the  publications  set  on  foot 
by  Hamilton  soon  led  to  the  establishment  of  opposition 
papers  by  Jefferson.  The  chief  protagonist  of  the  demo- 
cratic idea,  when  he  came  to  the  Presidency,  did  not  hesi- 
tate to  follow  in  Hamilton's  footsteps.  As  we  have 
seen,  he  gave  to  Duane  and  others  such  patronage  and 
encouragement  as  served  to  keep  them  contented,  and  ac- 
ceptably representative  of  his  administration. 

When  the  capital  was  moved  to  Washington,  that  city 
was  not  of  sufficient  size  or  importance  to  warrant  the 
settling  there  of  men  of  weight  and  standing  in  journal- 
ism. Consequently,  it  was  in  Philadelphia  and  New  York 
that  they  found  opportunities  for  producing  papers  that 
would  afifect  the  public. 

230 


NEWSPAPERS  AND  THE  CAPITAL  231 

In  a  capital  that  was  not  a  historic  city, —  a  capital, 
moreover,  where  the  inhabitants  were  all  citizens  of  other 
sections  of  the  country  —  journalism  was  bound  to  as- 
sume a  peculiar  phase,  radically  different  from  any  to 
be  found  in  the  European  countries,  where  the  journalism 
of  the  nation  was  dominated  by  that  of  the  capital. 

It  is  interesting  to  speculate  as  to  the  differences  that 
might  have  been  in  the  history  of  American  journalism 
had  Washington  been  the  metropolis,  and  had  the 
journals  of  that  city  swayed  the  thought  of  the  country. 
The  attempt  to  influence  the  country  through  Washing- 
ton is  part  of  the  history  of  the  slave  power.  The  failure 
of  the  attempt  and  the  rise  of  anti-slavery  journalism 
which  did  so  much  to  sweep  the  slave  power  out  of  Wash- 
ington, is  the  story  of  northern  journalism. 

The  geographical  position  of  the  capital  brought  the 
journals,  as  well  as  the  social  life,  under  the  influence 
of  the  south.  This  was,  as  we  shall  see,  to  the  distinct 
detriment  of  the  newspapers,  for,  although  there  was 
no  difference  of  mental  or  intellectual  ability  between 
northern  and  southern  journalists,  the  social  characteris- 
tics of  the  south  were  opposed  to  the  democratic  idea 
which  was  the  life  and  breath  of  journalism.  Moreover, 
American  journalism,  as  it  was  to  develop,  could  not  live 
where  the  duello  was  so  much  in  vogue  as  it  was  in  the 
south.  Here  and  there  editors  of  extraordinary  charac- 
ter might  be  found,  men  who  could  write  and  shoot  with 
equal  facility,  but  the  usual  intellectual  development  pro- 
duced no  such  ambidexterity. 

With  the  leading  minds  of  the  country  gathered  in 
Washington  for  the  greater  part  of  the  year,  it  was 
natural  that  there  should  soon  be  the  germ  of  great  in- 
fluence there.  Because  Washington  was  not  the  center 
of  population,  and  because  the  papers  there  were  under 


212  HISTORY  OF  JOURNALISM 

the  immediate  influence  of  the  government,  no  national 
journals,  such  as  those  associated  with  the  names  of 
Hammond,  Medill,  Greeley,  Bowles  or  Bennett,  were 
ever  developed  at  the  capital. 

Furthermore,  Washington  journals  having  little  or  no 
influence  on  the  home  constituents  of  the  legislators,  the 
editors  were  not  men  whom  it  became  customary  to  take 
into  the  party  councils.  As  in  the  case  of  Gales  and  Sea- 
ton,  however,  a  few  of  the  editors  showed  themselves  to 
be  such  conspicuously  able  citizens  that  the  leading  states- 
men of  the  country  were  glad  and  proud  of  their  friend- 
ship. 

As  early  as  1796,  before  the  capital  was  located  at 
Washington,  a  weekly  paper  had  been  printed  there,  un- 
der the  auspices  of  Benjamin  More.  The  year  previous 
an  unsuccessful  attempt  had  been  made  by  T.  Wilson, 
who  had  founded  the  Impartial  Oh  server,  which  lasted 
but  a  short  time.  ^ 

Jefferson,  for  the  benefit  of  the  party,  induced  Samuel 
Harrison  Smith,  then  the  proprietor  of  the  Philadelphia 
Universal  Gazette,  to  move  to  Washington  when  that 
city  became  the  capital.  Smith  had  recently  purchased 
the  paper  from  Joseph  Gales,  one  of  the  aliens  at  whom 
the  Alien  and  Sedition  laws  had  been  aimed.  Gales  had 
been  a  conspicuous  journalist  in  England  and  had  fled 
because  of  threatened  prosecution  for  political  articles 
which  had  appeared  in  his  paper,  the  Sheffield  Register. 
It  was  said  that  he  studied  stenography  during  the  long 
voyage  to  this  country;  one  can  readily  believe  that  he 
might  have  mastered  many  sciences  in  the  time  such  a 
voyage  occupied  in  those  days.  He  worked  as  a  printer 
on  the  Philadelphia  papers  and  was  one  of  the  first  to  re- 
port Congressional  debates  by  stenography.  In  1797  he 
1  Bryan,  History  of  the  National  Capital,  i,  264. 


NEWSPAPERS  AND  THE  CAPITAL  233 

decided  to  move  to  Raleigh  and  sold  his  Philadelphia 
paper  to  Smith,  who  changed  the  name  from  Indepen- 
dent Gazctter  to  Universal  Gazette.  On  the  first  of  Octo- 
ber, 1800,  Smith  inaugurated  the  National  Intelligencer 
and  Washington  Advertiser,  which  was  issued  three  times 
a  week;  he  also  transferred  the  Universal  Gazette  to 
Washington,  making  it  the  weekly  edition  of  the  Intelli- 
gencer." ^  At  about  the  same  time  Jefferson's  opponents 
set  up  a  paper  called  the  Washington  Federalist;  it  lasted 
but  a  very  short  time,  while  Smith's  paper  rapidly  be- 
came prosperous  and  influential  and  was  known  as  the 
"  court  journal." 

In  1809  Smith  admitted  as  partner  Joseph  Gales,  Jr., 
son  of  the  man  from  whom  he  had  purchased  the  Inde- 
pendent Gazetteer.  During  the  temporary  retirement  of 
Smith,  Gales  associated  with  him  William  W.  Seaton, 
his  brother-in-law,  and  the  two  became  official  stenog- 
raphers to  Congress,  one  reporting  the  Senate,  the  other 
the  House  of  Representatives.  They  were  the  first 
official  reporters  of  Congress;  to  them  the  country  is  in- 
debted for  the  notes  of  the  famous  Missouri  Compromise 
debates  and  other  great  oratorical  clashes,  including  that 
of  Webster  and  Hayne.  Their  seats  were  near  those  of 
the  President  of  the  Senate  and  the  Speaker  of  the 
House,  and,  as  one  of  the  perquisites,  they  shared  with 
those  officials  in  the  use  of  the  official  snuff-boxes.  * 

After  the  war  of  18 12,  their  position  was  even  more 
important  than  it  had  been  before,  for  the  British,  when 
they  captured  the  city,  were  reported  to  have  destroyed 
their  office  **  in  revenge." 

Gales  and  Seaton  became  a  famous  partnership  and 
both  were  important  men  in  the  City  of  Washington. 
Clay  rushed  to  avail  himself  of  the  columns  of  the  In- 

2  Bryan,  i,  365.  s  Bryan,  ii,  177. 


234  HISTORY  OF  JOURNALISM 

telligencer  when  he  was  attacked  by  an  unknown  con- 
gressman in  the  Columbia  Observer,  and  it  was  therein 
boldly  denied  that  he  had  been  guilty  of  making  a  coali- 
tion with  John  Quincy  Adams  by  which  he  was  to  be  made 
Secretary  of  State  in  return  for  his  support  of  Adams 
for  President.  Webster  is  reported  to  have  said  that 
Gales  and  Seaton  were  the  two  wisest  heads  in  the  coun- 
try, and  that  Gales  knew  more  about  the  history  of  gov- 
ernment than  "  all  the  political  writers  of  the  day  put 
together." 

It  was  Seaton  who  in  1824  entertained  General  Lafay- 
ette at  his  home,  and  the  two  partners,  in  turn,  served  as 
mayors  of  the  City  of  Washington.  Gales  was  elected 
Mayor  in  1827  and  again  in  1828,  while  Seaton  served 
for  ten  years.  When  Gales  was  not  a  candidate  in  1830, 
it  was  intimated  in  his  paper  that  national  politics  was 
playing  a  part  in  local  affairs,  which  would  indicate  that 
Andrew  Jackson  was  not  allowing  the  editor  of  an  opposi- 
tion paper  to  advance  politically  with  his  permission.  It 
was  due  to  Gales  and  Seaton  that  the  first  attempt  was 
made  to  publish  under  separate  form  the  debates  of  Con- 
gress, and  this  was  attempted  at  their  own  risk  and  ex- 
pense. 

Vin  the  last  few  months  that  Monroe  held  office,  a  num- 
ber of  personal  organs  appeared,  papers  intended  to  ad- 
vance the  political  fortunes  of  various  individual  states- 
men. During  the  administration  of  John  Quincy  Adams, 
the  National  Journal  was  the  favored  one.  It  was  edited 
by  Peter  Force,  another  practical  printer,  who  later 
achieved  considerable  influence  in  Washington  life. 

With  Andrew  Jackson's  inauguration  in  1829,  both  the 
Intelligencer  of  Gales  and  Seaton  and  Force's  National 
Journal  lost  their  semi-official  positions,  and  Duff  Green's 
United  States  Telegraph  became  the  ''  official  paper,"  al- 


NEWSPAPERS  AND  THE  CAPITAL  235 

though  Green's  warm   friendship  for  John  C.   Calhoun 
led  him  to  follow  that  leader  rather  than  the  President. 

Amos  Kendall,  who  was  an  assistant  editor  under 
Green,  afterward  became  Jackson's  confidential  advisor. 
Green's  friendship  for  Calhoun  led  the  President  to  decide 
on  having  an  organ  of  his  own,  edited  by  a  man  whom 
he  could  trust;  he  selected  for  this  purpose  Francis  P. 
Blair,  editor  of  the  Frankfort  Argus,  a  paper  controlled 
by  Kendall.  Jackson  brought  Blair  to  Washington  and 
established  the  Globe,  and  more  directly  than  had  Hamil- 
ton or  Jefferson,  he  made  the  paper  a  vehicle  for  the  ex- 
pression of  his  personal  views.__^ 

Green  has  left  on  record  the  statement  that  President 
Jackson's  action  in  starting  a  new  paper  cost  him  $50,000 
a  year.  Some  one  tried  to  patch  up  the  differences  be- 
tween Jackson  and  Green  and  the  latter  says  that,  before 
the  President's  own  cabinet,  he,  Green,  refused  to  shake 
hands.  How  Harris  and  Zenger  and  Edes  would  have 
stared  at  that  performance ! 

It  was  said  that  the  President  often  turned  his  mail 
over  to  Blair,  allowing  him  to  edit  it  as  he  was  disposed. 
Amos  Kendall,  becoming  editorial  writer  on  the  Globe, 
had  nightly  private  conferences  with  Jackson,  at  which 
the  President  would  lie  down  and  smoke  and  dictate  his 
ideas  "  as  well  as  he  could  express  them,"  while  Kendall 
would  write  and  re-write  until  by  alterations  and  correc- 
tions he  had  succeeded  in  getting  his  articles  as  the  master 
mind  wished  them.  "  General  Jackson  needed  such  an 
amanuensis  —  intelligent,  learned,  industrious  —  as  Mr. 
Kendall  was,"  says  Henry  A.  Wise  of  Virginia.  '*  He 
could  think  but  could  not  write;  he  knew  what  nerve  to 
touch,  but  he  was  no  surgeon  skilled  in  the  instrument  of 
dissection.  Kendall  was."  ^ 
*  Hudson,  History  of  Journalism,  239. 


236  HISTORY  OF  JOURNALISM 

Following  the  Whig  victory  of  Harrison  and  Tyler  in 
1S40,  the  Globe  ceased  to  be  the  organ  of  the  administra- 
tion, but  the  Intelligencer  was  not  restored  entirely  to  its 
old  position.  A  rival  had  developed  in  the  Madisonian, 
which  originally  had  been  Van  Buren's  paper,  but  which, 
having  seen  a  great  light,  had  gone  over  to  the  Whigs. 

The  proprietor  of  the  Intelligencer  was  made  printer 
for  the  House  of  Representatives  and  the  Senate  selected 
the  publisher  of  the  Madisonian  as  its  printer.  When 
Harrison  died  most  of  the  Whig  journals  deserted 
Tyler,  but  the  Madisonian  took  up  his  cause,  becoming 
a  daily  shortly  afterward.  The  South  Carolina  or  Cal- 
houn section  of  the  Democratic  party  blossomed  forth 
about  this  time  with  a  new  paper,  the  Spectator.  A 
change  was  also  made  in  the  method  of  doling  out  patron- 
age to  the  papers.  \  Since  18 19  the  practice  had  been  to 
print  the  laws  in  newspapers  in  the  different  states  and 
territories,  whereas  now  it  was  directed  that  they  should 
appear  in  at  least  two  and  not  more  than  four  of  the  prin- 
cipal papers  in  Washington,  preference  to  be  given  to 
those  with  the  largest  circulation. 

When  the  Democrats  came  back  into  power  with  James 
K.  Polk  in  1844,  they  returned  to  the  old  practice  of  scat- 
tering patronage  throughout  the  Union,  instead  of  giving 
it  to  the  Washington  organs.  The  wiser  men  in  the  party 
were  beginning  to  see  the  uselessness  of  the  administra- 
tion organs,  but  there  were  still  those  who  believed  in 
them.  "  For  want  of  an  official  organ  to  explain  the 
principles  of  action,"  observed  the  Boston  Advertiser, 
"  the  Polk  administration  has  acquired  no  political  charac- 
ter.'* 

Consequently  the  Globe  outfit  was  purchased, —  the 
left-over  organ  was  always  supposed  to  have  **  claims  " 
—  and  the  Washington  Union  was  issued  in  its  place  by 


NEWSPAPERS  AND  THE  CAPITAL  .237 

Thomas  Ritchie,  then  seventy  years  of  age,  and  one  of 
the  most  influential  political  editors  of  the  day.  During 
this  administration  the  dailies  dropped  to  two,  the  Intel- 
ligencer and  the  Union. 

yn  August  8,  1846,  a  law  was  enacted  that,  instead  of 
eacHTiouse  selecting  its  own  printer,  the  contract  should 
go  to  the  lowest  bidder.  In  the  meantime,  Blair  and 
Rives  had  more  firmly  established  the  Congressional 
Globe,  in  which  the  debates  in  Congress  appear  ver- 
batim, so  that  the  Globe  became  the  recognized  ofificial 
reporter  of  Congress,  a  position  it  continued  to  hold  un- 
til the  work  was  taken  over  by  the  Congressional  Record. 

It  was  said  of  President  Taylor  that,  although  over- 
ruled in  the  selection  of  his  official  advisors,  he  was 
allowed  to  have  his  own  way  in  the  choice  of  a  newspaper 
organ.  As  the  National  Intelligencer,  under  Gales  and 
Seaton,  had  been  very  friendly  to  Daniel  Webster  and 
had  denounced  Taylor's  nomination  as  "  one  not  fit  to 
be  made,"  the  President  sought  his  editorial  advisors  in 
other  quarters.  Alexander  Bullitt  and  John  O.  Sergeant, 
one  from  New  Orleans  and  the  other  from  New  York, 
were  brought  to  Washington  to  become  editors  of  the  Re- 
public, the  new  official  paper. 

This  organ  had  but  little  weight,  and,  when  Fillmore 
succeeded  to  office  and  Webster  became  the  head  of  his 
cabinet,  the  Massachusetts  statesman  saw  to  it  that  his 
favorites  were  immediately  restored  to  favor.  The  In- 
telligencer was  once  more  the  official  mouthpiece  of  the 
Whigs.^ 

But  the  selection  was  no  longer  a  matter  of  national 
importance.  It  had  degenerated  into  a  mere  designation 
of  so  much  patronage^' 

It  was  Jackson's  use'of  patronage  that  had  lessened  the 
*  R.  R.  Wilson,   Washington,  the  Capital  City,  \\,  70. 


238  HISTORY  OF  JOURNALISM 

influence  of  the  administration  organ  as  a  mplder  of 
public  opinion.  Furthermore,  the  country  had  expanded, 
not  only  in  population  and  wealth  but  in  political  inde- 
pendence and  knowledge,  to  the  point  where  the  idea  of 
administration  papers  was  manifestly  inadequate.  A 
semi-official  organ  at  the  capital  itself  would  necessarily 
be  found  ineffective,  when  so  many  of  the  papers  had 
their  own  representatives  writing  and  telegraphing  news 
which,  though  it  could  carry  a  certain  amount  of  color  for 
a  while,  was  obliged,  in  the  long  run,  to  be  responsive 
to  the  demand  for  uncolored  news  or  else  to  forfeit  not 
only  its  standing  but  its  existence.  What  was  effective 
in  a  personal  organ  —  friendly  interpretation  within 
judicious  limits  —  might  be  obtained  from  some  if  not 
all  of  these  Washington  correspondents  without  the  cost 
of  supporting  a  paper.  iMore  important  still,  with  a 
country  growing  as  rapidly^as  was  the  United  States,  it 
was  not  the  organ  at  the  capital  that  was  most  effective ; 
the  newspapers  in  the  large  cities,  or  even  in  small  ones, — 
those  having  able  editors  and  writers  —  were  the  ones 
that  were  in  a  position  to  affect  the  public'  Men  who 
were  leaders  did  not,  as  the  country  grew,  look  to  the 
capital  for  guidance.  Many  of  the  men  who  swayed 
public  opinion  were  not  connected  with  Washington,  and 
in  many  instances,  when  they  did  go  to  the  capital  in 
official  positions,  they  went  there  with  set  opinions,  carry- 
ing with  them  the  endorsement  of  their  own  communities 
and  expecting,  not  to  be  guided,  but  to  guide. 

Cheetham,  the  editor  of  the  Citizen  of  New  York,  who 
had  been  Coleman's  bitter  antagonist,  was  one  of  the 
first  to  establish  himself  in  Washington  during  the  ses- 
sion of  Congress,  and,  through  his  intimacy  with  Jeffer- 
son, he  developed  a  correspondence  for  his  paper  that  had 
some  of  the  force  of  official  utterances.     Duane  of  the 


NEWSPAPERS  AND  THE  CAPITAL  239 

Aurora,  and  Joseph  T.  Buckingham  of  the  Boston 
Galaxy  were  also  conspicuous  figures  in  the  early  days. 
fit  was  during  the  exciting  debates  of  1824,  however, 
that  newspapers  began  sending  their  own  representatives 
to  report  them,  relying  less  on  the  papers  printed  in  Wash- 
ington.^  Any  success  of  such  semi-official  journalism  as 
Jackson  planned  was  bound  to  be  temporary  at  best, 
especially  when  the  men  outside  the  official  circle  were 
of  such  caliber  as  were  James  Gordon  Bennett,  who 
acted  as  correspondent  to  the  New  York  Courier  from 
1827  to  1832;  Richard  Houghton,  afterward  editor  of 
the  Boston  Atlas,  the  man  responsible  for  undermining 
Daniel  Webster's  hold  on  the  country  and  bringing  about 
the  nomination  of  William  Henry  Harrison;  James  Webb 
of  the  New  York  Courier  and  Enquirer;  George  D.  Pren- 
tice of  the  Louisville  Journal;  Thurlow  Weed  of  the 
Albany  Evening  Journal;  Henry  B.  Anthony  of  the 
Providence  Journal;  Thomas  Ritchie  of  the  Richmond 
Enquirer,  and  later  Horace  Greeley,  John  W.  Forney  and 
Henry  J.  Raymond.  Every  one  of  these  men  would  have 
scoffed  at  taking  ''  dictation,"  even  from  a  President. 


CHAPTER  XVIII 

PENNY  PAPERS  AND  THE  NEW  YORK  SUN 

Development  of  cheaper  papers  —  De  Tocqueville  on  personal 
journalism  —  Philadelphia  first  in  field  —  Boston  second  — 
Appearance  of  New  York  Sun  —  Its  many  imitators  —  Imme- 
diate success  —  Amenities  among  editors  —  Locke  and  the 
moon  hoax  —  The  Philadelphia  Ledger  and  the  Baltimore  Sun 
—  Some  rules  for  reporters  —  Penny  papers  debated  in  Con- 
gress. 

Unnecessary  emphasis  has  been  placed  on  the  price  of 
the  popular  journals  that  came  into  existence  in  the  early 
thirties.  It  has  generally  been  asserted  that  their  low 
price  was  the  cause  of  their  popularity;  as  a  matter  of 
fact,  as  we  have  seen,  popular  journalism  was  coming, 
and  it  was  only  a  question  of  time  when  papers  with  a 
broader  appeal  than  that  of  the  old-fashioned  six-cent 
sheet  would  be  offered  to  the  public. 

I  Reduction  in  the  cost  of  materials  made  possible  the 
penny  paper,  which  led  many  editors  and  journalists  to 
appreciate  more  quickly  the  democratic  movement  that 
was  going  on  around  them.  In  offering  a  paper  to  a 
public  that  could  afford  but  a  penny,  they  were  obliged 
to  study  the  public  and  so  came  to  appreciate  the  fact 
that  what  interested  the  penny  public  did  not  interest  the 
six-cent  public?  In  other  words,  details,  such  as  could 
be  obtained  from  the  police  courts,  about  the  life  of 
ordinary  people,  and  the  romance  of  the  divorce  courts 
were  used  to  make  the  penny  papers  more  appealing,  thus 
bringing  about  a  broader  interest  on  the  part  of  the 
journalists  in  the  human  side  of  the  daily  life  of  the  city. 

240 


PENNY  PAPERS  AND  THE  NEW  YORK  SUN     241 

Of  the  many  journals  that  were  estabhshed  to  meet  the 
demand  thus  created,  only  those  survived  by  whom  that 
demand  was  truly  understood ;  those  who  satisfied  it  with 
newspapers  of  character,  with  an  appreciation  of  the 
great  curiosity  on  the  part  of  the  public  for  facts  —  or 
fiction  —  about  their  very  interesting  selves. 

De  Tocqueville,  in  his  travels  in  this  country,  was 
struck  with  this  very  personal  attitude  on  the  part  of 
American  editors. 

"  The  journalists  of  the  United  States,"  he  wrote, 
"  are  usually  placed  in  a  very  humble  position  with  a 
scanty  education  and  a  vulgar  turn  of  mind.  .  .  .  The 
characteristics  of  the  American  journalist  consist  of  an 
open  and  coarse  appeal  to  the  passions  of  the  populace, 
and  he  habitually  abandons  the  principles  of  political 
science  to  assail  the  characters  of  individuals,  to  track 
them  into  private  life  and  disclose  all  their  weaknesses 
and  errors.  .  .  .  The  personal  opinions  of  the  editors 
have  no  kind  of  weight  in  the  eyes  of  the  public." 

To  this  cultivated  young  man  the  journalistic  expres- 
sion of  a  raw  young  democracy,  lacking  all  the  tradi- 
tions of  the  old  European  countries,  was  marked  with 
crudities  and  vulgarities.  The  crudities  were  generally 
admitted  and  the  vulgarities  denied, —  foolishly,  for  they 
are  inevitable  and  unimportant  when  we  consider  the 
social  and  political  changes  of  which  they  were  simply 
surface  manifestations. 

(JJp  to  the  early  thirties,  the  price  of  newspapers  in  the 
large  cities  had  remained  practically  prohibitive,  so  far  as 
the  average  workingman  was  concerned.  The  papers 
were  not  sold  on  the  streets  and  could  only  be  obtained 
through  subscription.  Still  more  important,  they  were 
edited,  not  for  the  people  on  the  street,  but  by  and  for 
the  business  institutions  or  the  politiciansrj 


y 


242  HISTORY  OF  JOURNALISM 

The  Whig  party,  which  had  replaced  the  Federalists 
as  an  opposition  party  to  the  Democrats,  was  the  party 
of  the  business  man,  while  the  Democratic  party,  under 
Jackson,  was  becoming  the  party  of  the  laboring  class, 
especially  at  the  north.  As  yet,  however,  no  paper  in- 
tended solely  for  this  working  class  had  appeared.  The 
presses  were  still  worked  by  hand,  and  the  average  cir- 
culation of  the  eleven  six-cent  dailies  published  in  New 
York  was  said  to  be  not  more  than  i  ,700  each. 

Important  indeed  was  the  discovery  that  the  papers 
were  real  business  factors,  and  that  the  advertisements, 
rather  than  the  circulation,  were  the  means  of  making 
them  profitable  investments.  The  business  world  at  large 
was  now  beginning  to  realize  the  value  of  the  newspapers 
for  making  public  announcements,  and  this  tendency  had 
increased  so  much  that  the  matter  of  circulation  was, 
in  a  great  majority  of  instances,  important  only  as 
it  enabled  the  newspapers  to  command  advertise- 
ments. 

With  such  conditions  before  them  it  was  inevitable 
that  shrewd  publishers,  men  possessed  of  initiative, 
would  recognize  the  value  of  journals  that  would  ap- 
peal to  the  great  mass  of  the  people  who  were  then  not 
readers  of  the  papers;  journals,  also,  which  could  be 
sold  at  a  price  that  would  be  within  the  reach  of  the 
poorest. 

It  was  in  Philadelphia,  where  so  many  important 
journalistic  innovations  had  begun,  that  the  public  was 
offered  the  first  paper  for  one  cent.  It  was  called  the 
Cent,  and  was  issued  in  1830  by  Dr.  Christopher  Colum- 
bus Conwell,  from  a  little  office  in  Second  Street,  below 
Dock  Street.  Conwell  had  received  his  education  at 
Mount  St.  Mary's  and  Georgetown  Colleges  and  had 
graduated  in  medicine  at  the  University  of  Pennsylvania. 


PENNY  PAPERS  AND  THE  NEIV  YORK  SUN      243 

He  was  said  to  be  a  young  man  of  fine  intellectual  powers 
and  was  a  prolific  contributor  to  the  current  magazines 
of  that  time;  he  died  of  cholera  in  1832  and  his  paper 
did  not  survive  him. 

Shortly  after  Conwell's  time,  an  attempt  was  made  in 
Boston  to  publish  a  one-cent  paper  called  The  Bostonian, 
but  this,  too,  failed.  Following  this  came  the  Morning 
Post  in  New  York,  January  i,  1833,  notable  principally 
for  the  fact  that  in  this  particular  experiment  Horace 
Greeley,  the  ambitious  young  printer,  had  an  interest. 
The  Post,  however,  was  not  really  a  penny  paper,  and 
its  projectors,  whose  capital  did  not  exceed  two  hundred 
dollars,  ascribed  their  failure  to  the  fact  that  the  price  — 
two  cents  —  was  too  high.  After  a  week's  experiment, 
the  price  was  reduced  to  one  cent  and,  at  the  end  of 
three  weeks,  the  Morning  Post  died. 

To  this  paper,  however,  was  given  the  credit  of  in- 
spiring the  publication,  in  the  following  fall,  of  the  New 
York  Sun,  the  first  permanent  penny  paper.  On  the 
other  hand,  it  must  be  remembered  that,  since  1830,  the 
illustrated  penny  magazine  of  London  had  been  circulated 
in  New  York  and  other  American  cities  and  sold  in  large 
quantities.  The  experiments  in  Boston  and  Philadelphia 
had  also  attracted  attention  and  discussion  among  print- 
ers. These  printers  and  compositors  were  an  intelligent 
body  of  men,  seeking  always  to  benefit  their  condition  and 
studiously  alive  to  the  new  ideas  with  which  the  country 
was  then  teeming. 

With  the  founding  of  the  New  York  Sun,  we  come 
to  consider  the  history  of  great  popular  institutions. 
Older  newspapers  came  to  have  something  of  the  same 
influence  as  the  Sun,  notably  the  Evening  Post,  under 
Bryant  and  later  under  Godkin.  But  the  Sun  was  the 
first  popular  paper ;  its  story,  as  Mr.  Edward  P.  Mitchell 


244  HISTORY  OF  JOURNALISM 

has  said,  is  that  of  a  living  thing,  altogether  aside  from 
the  men  who  made  it.  ^ 

Its  founder,  Benjamin  H.  Day,  had  learned  the  print- 
ing trade  in  the  office  of  Samuel  Bowles  the  elder,  owner 
of  the  Springfield  Republican.  After  working  at  his 
trade  in  New  York,  in  the  offices  of  the  Evening  Post 
and  the  Commercial  Advertiser,  he  decided  to  print  a 
penny  paper.  He  hired  a  room,  gathered  or  clipped  all 
the  news  or  advertisements,  and  by  sitting  up  all  night, 
brought  out,  on  the  third  of  September,  1833,  the  first 
issue  of  the  New  York  Sun.  In  its  treatment  of  news 
the  paper  differed  little  from  the  six-cent  papers.  It 
contained  a  few  police  items,  which  showed  an  endeavor 
to  follow  out  its  ambition  as  announced  at  the  top  of 
the  first  column  of  the  front  page: 

"  The  object  of  this  paper  is  to  lay  before  the  public, 
at  a  price  within  the  means  of  every  one,  all  the  news  of 
the  day,  and  at  the  same  time  offer  an  advantageous 
medium  for  advertisements." 

After  two  months  Day  announced  that  its  success  was 
assured,  and  that  it  had  demonstrated  that  '*  the  penny 
press,  by  diffusing  useful  knowledge  among  the  opera- 
tive classes  of  society,  is  effecting  the  march  of  inde- 
pendence to  a  greater  degree  than  any  other  mode  of 
instruction."  ^ 

The  Sun  at  once  took  an  active  part  in  the  life  of  the 
community,  as  can  be  seen  in  its  announcement  that  the 
manager  of  the  Park  Theater,  with  whom  Day  had  had 
a  quarrel,  was  to  appear,  the  announcement  being  phrased 
in  this  delicate  fashion : 

''  DAMN  THE  YANKEES  —  We  are  informed  by 
a  correspondent  (though  we  have  not  seen  the  announce- 

1  Frank  M.  O'Brien,  preface  to  The  Story  of  the  Sun. 
*  November  9,  1833. 


PENNY  PAPERS  AND  THE  NEW  YORK  SUN     245 

ment  ourselves)  that  Farren,  the  chap  who  damned  the 
Yankees  so  lustily  the  other  day,  and  who  is  now  under 
bonds  for  a  gross  outrage  on  a  respectable  butcher  near 
the  Bowery  Theater,  is  intending  to  make  his  appearance 
on  the  Bowery  stage  THIS  EVENING!" 

The  success  of  the  paper  of  this  period  must  be  con- 
sidered not  only  from  the  point  of  view  of  its  financial 
returns,  but  from  the  part  that  it  played  in  stimulating 
its  rivals.  It  is  this  personal,  competitive  and  aggres- 
sively combatant  side  of  American  journalism  that 
makes  its  history  so  interesting,  and  so  true  an  index  of 
the  democratic  life  of  the  people. 

In  commenting  on  the  fact  that  other  penny  papers  had 
all  passed  away.  Day  noted  that  since  these  papers  had 
been  printed  they  had  begun  '*  the  most  unlimited  and 
reckless  abuse  of  ourselves,  the  impeachment  of  our  char- 
acter, public  and  private." 

The  Sim  was  able  to  claim  the  credit  of  inspiring,  not 
only  the  founding  of  the  New  York  Herald,  but 
numerous  other  sheets,  among  them  The  Jeffersonian  — 
The  Man  —  The  Transcript —  The  True  Sun —  (estab- 
lished by  some  discharged  employees)  —  The  Morning 
Star — The  New  Era  (established  by  Richard  Locke, 
whose  Moon  Hoax  story  attracted  wide  attention)  — 
The  Daily  Whig  —  The  Bee  —  The  Serpent  —  The 
Light — The  Express  —  The  Union — The  Rough 
Hewer  —  The  Nezvs  Times  —  The  Examiner  —  The 
Morning  Chronicle  —  The  Evening  Chronicle  —  The 
Daily  Conservative  —  The  Censor  and  the  Daily  News,  all 
of  which  were  started  within  a  period  of  fifteen  years 
after  the  Sun,  and  all  passed  away  with  the  exception  of 
the  Express  and  the  Daily  News. 

Three  years  after  it  had  been  founded  the  Sun  boasted 
that  it  had  a  circulation  of  27,000  copies  daily  or  5,600 


246  HISTORY  OF  JOURNALISM 

more   than   the   combined   sale   of    the    eleven    six-cent 
papers.  ^ 

Moreover,  changes  in  the  attitude  of  the  public  mind 
toward  newspapers  were  set  forth,  statements  important 
even  as  claims : 
y  "  Since  the  Sun  began  to  shine  upon  the  citizens  of 
New  York  there  has  been  a  very  great  and  decided  change 
in  the  condition  of  the  laboring  classes  and  the  mechanics, 
Now  every  individual,  from  the  rich  aristocrat  who  lolls 
in  his  carriage  to  the  humble  laborer  who  wields  a  broom 
in  the  streets,  reads  the  Sun;  nor  can  even  a  boy  be  found 
in  New  York  City  or  the  neighboring  country  who  will 
not  know  in  the  course  of  the  day  what  is  promulgated  in 
the  Sun  in  the  morning. 

"  Already  we  perceive  a  change  in  the  mass  of  the 
people.  They  think,  talk,  and  act  in  concert.  They  un- 
derstand their  own  interest,  and  feel  that  they  have 
numbers  and  strength  to  pursue  it  with  success. 

*'  The  Sun  newspaper  has  probably  done  more  to  bene- 
fit the  community  by  enlightening  the  minds  of  the  com- 
mon people  than  all  the  other  papers  together."  ^ 

The  ''  social  "  success  of  the  paper,  as  shown  in  its 
relations  with  fellow  editors,  is  evident  from  the  fact  that 
James  Watson  Webb  was  warned  that  the  *'  three  edi- 
tors "  of  the  Sun  had  pistols  and  would  use  them  if  Webb 
attempted  a  threatened  assault. 

When  Webb  assaulted  Bennett  in  January,  1836,  Day, 
in  the  Sun,  illustrating  the  pleasant  attitude  of  editors 
toward  one  another,  thus  sums  up  his  own  ideas  as  to 
the  character  of  his  confreres  : 

"  Low  as  he  has  fallen,  both  in  the  public  estimation 
and  in  his  own,  we  are  astonished  to  learn  last  evening 

*  The  Sun,  August  4,  1836. 

*  The  Sun,  June  28,  1838. 


PENNY  PAPERS  AND  THE  NEW  YORK  SUN      247 

that  Colonel  Webb  had  stooped  so  far  beneath  anything 
of  which  we  had  ever  conceived  it  possible  for  him  to 
be  guilty,^  as  publicly,  and  before  the  eyes  of  hundreds 
who  knew  him,  to  descend  to  a  personal  chastisement  of 
that  villainous  libel  of  humanity  of  all  kinds,  the  notorious 
vagabond  Bennett.     But  it  is  so." 

In  answer  to  Greeley's  declaration  that  his  paper,  the 
Tribune,  was  to  be  the  journal  "  of  the  virtuous  and  re- 
fined," the  Sun  a  week  later  notified  him  that  he  must 
"  go  to  school  and  learn  a  little  decency." 

Edgar  Allen  Foe,  who  occasionally  found  in  cheap 
journalism  an  opportunity  to  make  a  needed  penny,  gave 
to  the  celebrated  Moon  Hoax  story  of  Richard  Adams 
Locke  the  credit  for  the  success  of  penny  journalism  — 
a  trifle  too  enthusiastically,  as  one  might  expect  from  a 
man  of  Foe's  temperament : 

"  From  the  epoch  of  the  hoax,"  he  wrote,  ''  the  Sun 
shone  with  unmitigated  splendor.  Its  success  firmly  es- 
tablished '  the  penny  system  '  through  the  country,  and 
(through  the  Sun)  consequently  we  are  indebted  to  the 
genius  of  Mr.  Locke  for  one  of  the  most  important  steps 
ever  yet  taken  in  the  pathway  of  human  progress." 

Although  the  story  scarcely  justifies  Foe's  encomiums 
nevertheless  it  gave  the  Sun  international  fame  at  a  time 
when  Day  could  not  reasonably  have  expected  to  attract 
attention  beyond  the  confines  of  New  York  City.  Locke, 
a  man  of  education  and  great  ability  —  he  had  Foe's 
unstinted  admiration  —  was  a  reporter  on  the  Sun  at 
twelve  dollars  a  week.  Needing  more  money,  he  out- 
lined his  moon  story  to  Day,  to  whom  the  project  was 
acceptable,  and,  after  a  preliminary  announcement  to  the 
effect  that  great  astronomical  discoveries  had  been  made 
by  Sir  John  Herschel,  the  Sun  published  on  August  25, 
1835,  three  columns  of  what  purported  to  be  a  reprint 


248  HISTORY  OF  JOURNALISM 

of  Herschel's  report,  credited  to  the  Supplement  to  the 
Edinburgh  Journal  of  Science. 

It  purported  to  give  an  account  of  the  astronomical 
observations  of  Herschel  at  the  Cape  of  Good  Hope,  made 
through  an  enormous  telescope.  For  the  next  four  days 
the  articles  grew  in  interest  until  finally  they  were  de- 
scribing the  appearances  of  man-bats  and  the  most  minute 
vegetation  on  the  moon.  They  were  so  well  written  that 
even  the  scientists  were  deceived  and  most  of  the  Sun's 
contemporaries,  even  the  six-cent  sheets  which  pretended 
to  despise  it,  took  for  granted  the  truth  of  the  reports. 

In  the  office  of  the  Sun,  after  the  close  of  the  Mexican 
War,  a  meeting  was  held  to  provide  means  for  lessening 
the  expense  of  gathering  news.  General  Hallock,  editor  of 
the  Journal  of  Commerce,  presided,  and  the  Sun,  Herald, 
Tribune,  Express  and  the  Courier  and  Enquirer  were  rep- 
resented. The  Harbor  Association  was  formed,  by  which 
one  fleet  of  news-boats  would  do  the  work  which  half 
a  dozen  had  been  doing,  and  the  New  York  Associated 
Press  was  formed  to  gather  news  in  the  large  cities.  ^ 

•  To  the  success  of  the  Sun  may  be  traced  the  founding 
of  two  of  the  most  important  papers  in  the  country,  at 
least  among  those  of  later  times.  When  Benjamin  Day 
first  conceived  the  plan  of  a  popular  penny  paper,  it  was 
with  two  fellow  printers,  Arunah  S.  Abell  and  William 
M.  Swain,  that  he  first  discussed  it.  They  ridiculed 
Day's  hopefulness,  and  Swain  is  said  to  have  prophesied 
that  the  idea  would  be  the  ruin  of  Day.  Swain  later 
became  foreman  of  the  Sun,  and  three  years  after  it  was 
founded,  with  Abell  and  another  printer  named  Azariah 
H.  Simmons,  decided  to  try  the  popular  penny  paper  idea 
in  other  cities. 

The  three  went  to  Philadelphia  and  there  brought  out, 
5  O'Brien,  The  Story  of  the  Sun,  167. 


PENNY  PAPERS  AND  THE  NEIV  YORK  SUN     249 

on  March  25,  1836,  the  first  number  of  the  Public  Ledger. 
A  month  eariier  a  Philadelphia  printer,  William  L.  Drane, 
had  issued  the  Daily  Transcript  as  a  penny  paper,  but  be- 
fore the  year  was  over  the  Transcript  was  merged  with 
the  Public  Ledger. 

The  firm  of  Swain,  Abell  and  Simmons  had  had  the 
benefit  of  watching  the  progress  of  penny  journalism  in 
New  York,  but  they  were  unfortunate  in  their  time,  for 
their  venture  was  but  started  when  the  whole  country 
was  threatened  with  bankruptcy.  ^^ 

The  opening  number  of  the  Public  Ledger  contained  a 
broader  appeal  than  had  been  made  in  the  Sun,  for  its 
projectors  declared :  *'  While  its  cheapness  places  it  with- 
in the  reach  of  the  poorest  artisan  or  laborer,  we  shall 
endeavor  to  furnish  to  the  merchant  and  manufacturer 
the  earliest  and  most  useful  information  relating  to  their 
respective  interests."  It  declared  that  it  would  devote  it- 
self with  special  energy  ''  to  a  moral  and  intellectual  im- 
provement of  the  laboring  classes,  the  great  sinew  of  all 
civilized  communities." 

The  public,  which  might  not,  it  was  presumed,  be  fa- 
miliar with  the  journalistic  revolution  that  had  taken 
place  in  New  York,  where  there  were  now  three  penny 
papers  —  two  of  them  successful,  the  Sun  and  the  Herald 
—  was  informed  in  the  first  announcement  that  '*  in  the 
Cities  of  New  York  and  Brooklyn,  containing  a  popula- 
tion of  300,000,  the  daily  circulation  of  the  penny  papers 
is  not  less  than  70,000.  This  is  nearly  sufficient  to  place 
a  newspaper  in  the  hands  of  every  man  in  the  two  cities 
and  even  of  every  boy  old  enough  to  read.  These  papers 
are  to  be  found  in  every  street,  lane  and  alley;  in  every 
hotel,  tavern,  counting-house,  shop,  etc.;  almost  every 
porter,  drayman,  etc.,  while  not  engaged  in  his  occupa- 
tion, may  be  seen  with  a  penny  paper  in  his  hands." 


250  HISTORY  OF  JOURNALISM 

Philadelphia  at  first  was  cold  to  the  proposition;  so 
much  so  that  both  Swain  and  Simmons  were  inclined  to 
give  up  the  undertaking.  Abell,  however,  had  greater 
faith  and  business  expectations  for  the  paper.  It  oc- 
curred to  him  that  it  might  be  worth  while  to  visit  Balti- 
more to  see  what  the  prospects  were  for  establishing  a 
penny  paper  in  that  city.  He  found  there  none  but  six- 
cent  papers  and,  despite  the  fact  that  the  year  was  one  of 
unprecedented  gloom  and  business  depression,  he  per- 
suaded his  partners  that  the  field  was  a  fertile  one,  with 
the  consequences  that,  on  May  17,  1837,  the  first  number 
of  the  Baltimore  Sun  was  issued,  with  Abell  himself 
in  charge. 

Swain  remained  the  editor  in  charge  at  Philadelphia, 
and  these  two  enterprising  men,  one  in  Baltimore  and  the 
other  in  Philadelphia,  w^ere  thus  able  to  strengthen  their 
property  by  their  individual  enterprise  in  separate  cities. 

The  abolition  riots  in  Philadelphia,  in  1838,  gave  the 
Ledger  an  opportunity  to  show  its  courage  and  public 
spirit,  when  it  denounced  the  mob  and  pleaded  for  the 
right  of  free  speech  and  a  free  press.  The  courageous 
course  of  the  paper  attracted  to  it  the  support  of  the  law- 
abiding  people,  and  it  strengthened  its  position  by  being 
one  of  the  first  papers  to  advocate  independent  voting. 
Twice  the  ofBce  was  mobbed,  but  the  courage  of  the  edi- 
tor never  wavered. 

Both  Swain  and  Abell  were  enthusiastic  supporters  of 
the  Morse  magnetic  telegraph  and  Swain  was  afterward 
president  of  the  company  for  several  years.  For  twenty 
years  Swain  was  the  master  mind  on  the  Ledger,  and  he 
is  said  to  have  accumulated  a  fortune  of  three  million 
dollars,  but  at  the  beginning  of  the  Civil  War  it  was 
found  that  they  were  losing  money  because  of  the  in- 
creased price  of  paper.     Swain  was  unwilling  to  raise  the 


PENNY  PAPERS  AND  THE  NEW  YORK  SUN      251 

price  of  his  journal,  and  the  partnership  of  Swain  and 
Abell  — 'Simmons  having  died  —  came  to  an  end,  when  in 
1864  the  Pubic  Ledger  was  sold  to  George  W.  Childs. 

The  Sun  at  Baltimore,  under  Abell,  rapidly  became  a 
more  popular  paper  than  the  Ledger,  for  in  three  months 
it  had  a  larger  circulation  than  the  Philadelphia  paper 
had  at  the  end  of  nine  months.  In  a  very  short  time  it 
had  a  circulation  twice  as  large  as  the  oldest  established 
six-cent  paper  in  Baltimore. 

George  W.  Childs,  who  took  over  the  Public  Ledger 
from  Sw^ain,  was  one  of  America's  most  distinguished 
philanthropists.  He  was  one  of  the  large  school  of  Ben- 
jamin Franklin's  disciples,  men  who  at  this  time  w^ere 
becoming  conspicuous  as  millionaires  or  business  suc- 
cesses, having  started  in  life  without  a  penny,  but  with 
"  industry,  perseverance  and  a  stout  heart."  Childs  had 
been  a  member  of  a  successful  publishing  house  and  had 
published  a  literary  magazine,  wdien  he  purchased  the 
Public  Ledger.  His  managing  editor  for  years  was  Wil- 
liam V.  McKean,  and  to  McKean  should  be  given  credit 
for  the  system  of  editorial  ethics  put  forth  as  guiding 
principles  of  the  Public  Ledger.  We  read  the  constitu- 
tions of  governments,  but  it  is  not  often  that  we  have  the 
opportunity  of  reading  the  constitutional  principles  of  a 
great  newspaper : 

"  Always  deal  fairly  and  frankly  with  the  public. 

"  A  newspaper  to  be  trusted  and  respected  must  give 
trustworthy  information  and  counsel.  It  is  a  serious 
thing  to  mislead  the  people. 

''  Understate  your  case  rather  than  overstate  it. 

''  Have  a  sure  voucher  for  every  statement,  especially 
for  censure. 

''  There  is  a  wide  gap  between  accusation  of  crime  and 
actual  guilt. 


252  HISTORY  OF  JOURNALISM 

"  Deal  gently  with  weak  and  helpless  offenders. 

"  Before  making  up  judgment  take  care  to  under- 
stand both  sides,  and  remember  there  are  at  least  two 
sides.  If  you  attempt  to  decide,  you  are  bound  to  know 
both. 

"  Do  not  say  you  know  when  you  have  only  heard. 

"  Never  proceed  on  mere  hearsay.  Rumor  is  only  an 
index  to  be  followed  by  inquiry. 

"  Take  care  to  be  right.  Better  be  right  than  quickest 
with  '  the  news  '  which  is  often  false.  It  is  bad  to  be  late, 
but  worse  to  be  wrong. 

"  Go  to  first  hands  and  original  sources  for  informa- 
tion; if  you  cannot,  then  get  as  near  as  you  can. 

"  It  is  the  reporter's  office  to  chronicle  events,  to  col- 
lect facts;  comments  on  the  facts  are  reserved  for  the 
editor. 

"  Let  the  facts  and  reasoning  tell  the  story  rather  than 
rhetorical  flourish. 

"  Don't  be  too  positive.  Remember  always  it  is  pos- 
sible you  may  err. 

"  All  persons  have  equal  rights  in  the  court  of  con- 
science, as  well  as  in  courts  of  law. 

"  Never  add  fuel  to  the  fire  of  popular  excitement. 

"  There  is  nothing  more  demoralizing  in  public  af- 
fairs than  habitual  disregard  of  law. 

"  Uphold  the  authorities  in  maintaining  public  order, 
rectify  wrongs  through  the  law.  If  the  law  is  defective, 
better  mend  it  than  break  it. 

'*  Nearly  always  there  is  law  enough.  It  is  the  fail- 
ure to  enforce  it  that  makes  most  mischief. 

"  There  is  no  need,  and  therefore  no  excuse,  for  mob 
law  in  American  communities. 

"  Numerous  as  bad  men  may  be,  remember  they  are  but 
few  compared  with  the  millions  of  the  people. 


PENNY  PAPERS  AND  THE  NEIV  YORK  SUN     253 

"  The  public  welfare  has  higher  claims  than  any  party 
cry. 

"  Grace  and  purity  of  style  are  always  desirable,  but 
never  allow  rhetoric  to  displace  clear,  direct,  forcible  ex- 
pression. 

"  Plain  words  are  essential  for  unlearned  people,  and 
these  are  just  as  plain  to  the  most  accomplished."  ^ 

These  three  papers,  the  Sun  in  New  York,  the  Ledger 
in  Philadelphia,  and  the  Sun  in  Baltimore,  were  products 
of  a  developing  democracy.  In  turn  they  stood  very 
stiffly  for  the  democracy  that  had  incubated  them. 

In  the  first  years  of  penny  journalism  a  reference  dur- 
ing a  congressional  debate  to  the  penny  papers  and  their 
circulation  brought  forth  an  interesting  defense  of 
the  new  institution.  A  Congressman  named  Botts 
had  declared,  in  an  attack  on  the  practice  of  giving 
government  advertisements  to  the  penny  press,  that  they 
had  "  little  or  no  circulation  beyond  the  limits  of  the  city 
from  w^hich  they  were  published."  To  this  the  Sun  made 
answer  that  its  circulation  was  30,000  in  New  York, 
Brooklyn,  and  Jersey  City  and  5,000  more  without  the 
city.  The  combined  circulation  of  the  Boston  Times, 
the  New  York  Sun,  the  Philadelphia  Ledger,  and  the 
Baltimore  Sun  was  put  down  as  96,000  copies ;  and  the 
only  places  where  the  papers  had  not  circulated,  it  was 
admitted,  was  in  far-off  farms  and  villages.  In  addition 
to  this,  it  was  claimed  in  their  behalf  that  they  had,  in 
six  years,  accomplished  more  reforms  than  the  party 
press  had  in  twenty.  They  had  rid  Philadelphia  of  mobs, 
attacked  the  monopolies  of  the  banks  and  profiteers  in 
flour  and  beef,  and  had  started  a  discussion  tending  to 
reform  the  debased  currency  system.  ^^ 

Politically,  the  penny  press  taught  the  higher  priced 

•  See  Appendix,  Note  C. 


254  HISTORY  OF  JOURNALISM 

papers  that  party  connection  should  be  properly  subordi- 
nated to  the  other  and  higher  function  of  the  public  jour- 
nals —  the  function  of  gathering  and  presenting  the  news 
as  it  is. 

The  New  York  Sun  asserted  that,  by  this  mere  presen- 
tation of  the  news,  it  had  materially  benefited  the  city. 
New  York  was  a  city  undoubtedly  in  need  of  improve- 
ment in  many  ways.  Although  at  this  time  it  was  the 
metropolis  of  the  country  and  had  a  population  of  about 
300,000,  the  principal  streets  were  still  badly  paved  and 
poorly  lighted ;  although  on  lower  Broadway  at  the  fash- 
ionable hour,  (from  two  to  three  o'clock,)  there  was  a 
continuous  procession  of  omnibuses,  cabs,  coaches,  and 
carriages,  as  well  as  a  throng  of  gorgeously  dressed  men 
and  women,  sightseers,  shoppers  and  loiterers,  yet  bare- 
foot girls  swept  the  crossings  and  ragged  urchins  sold 
matches,  and  later,  the  penny  papers."^  Not  until  1845 
were  there  policemen  in  the  daylight  hours. 

Thousands  of  penny  newspapers  were  distributed  each 
week  in  the  country  cities.  They  were  sold  in  Boston, 
New  York,  Philadelphia,  and  Baltimore,  at  two-thirds  of 
a  cent  a  copy  to  the  newsboys  and  carriers,  who  sold  them 
on  the  street  at  a  cent,  or  delivered  them  over  their  routes 
and  collected  six  cents  from  each  customer  on  Saturday. 
What  seemed  to  amaze  people  most  was  the  fact  that  in 
New  York  you  would  not  see  a  laborer  waiting  or  resting 
on  a  job,  without  also  seeing  a  penny  paper  in  his  hands. 
Even  the  old  six-cent  journals  admitted  editorially  that 
the  new  type  of  journalism  had  both  spirit  and  intelli- 
gence and  that  all  that  was  wanting  to  make  it  a  real 
force  in  the  community  was  a  little  common  decency  and 
honesty. 

■^  McMaster,  History,  vii,  yy. 


CHAPTER  XIX 

JAMES  GORDON  BENNETT  AND  THE  HERALD 

Jackson's  administration  —  Bennett's  innovations  —  Impressions 
which  influenced  his  course  —  First  political  conventions  — 
Experience  in  politics  —  New  York  Herald  —  Characteristics 
of  its  founder  —  Assault  by  James  Watson  Webb  —  An- 
nouncement of  his  marriage  —  O.  G.  Villard's  criticism. 

In  a  democracy,  all  popular  institutions  should  tend  to 
identify  the  interest  of  the  government  with  that  of  the 
people,  and  the  newspaper  has  been  the  greatest  means  to 
that  end.  Throughout  the  fast-developing  country,  how- 
ever, large  numbers  of  people  had,  until  the  introduction 
of  cheap  newspapers,  only  that  share  in  government  that 
came  from  representatives  of  other  people's  selection. 

The  period  of  Andrew  Jackson's  presidency,  during 
which  the  modern  newspaper  was  first  sold  at  a  price 
within  the  reach  of  the  laboring  man's  purse,  was  one  of 
the  most  remarkable  in  the  history  of  the  world,  and 
"  nowhere  more  remarkable  than  in  the  United  States," 
says  John  Fiske. 

It  was  an  industrial  Periclean  age,  during  which  the 
railroads  were  introduced  and  developed,  and  agricul- 
tural machines  invented;  it  was  signalized  by  the  intro- 
duction of  anthracite  coal  and  friction  matches,  and  of 
the  modern  type  of  daily  newspaper;  by  the  beginning  of 
such  cities  as  Chicago,  by  the  steady  immigration  from 
Europe,  the  rise  of  the  Abolitionists  and  other  reformers, 
the  rapid  expansion  of  the  country  and  the  consequent  ex- 
tensive changes  in  ideas  and  modes  of  living. 

355 


256  HISTORY  OF  JOURNALISM 

The  New  York  Herald  was  the  first  successful  attempt 
to  provide  a  paper  that  dealt  with  the  doings  of  the  peo- 
ple aside  from  their  activities  as  political  communities ;  it 
was  also  the  first  newspaper  to  introduce  what  have  since 
been  described  as  **  counting-room  "  methods.  It  was  the 
first  to  sell  news  as  news  and  not  for  the  effect  it  would 
have  on  its  readers.  The  founder's  experiences  in  poli- 
tics had  been  bitter  enough  to  make  him  sympathize  with 
the  great  mass  of  people  who  had  very  little  more  to  do 
with  government  than  to  vote.  Out  of  his  own  personal 
disappointments  there  had  come  the  realization  that  there 
was  a  vast  majority  of  the  public  for  whom  what  usually 
passed  for  news  could  have  but  little  interest,  except  as  it 
stirred  their  imagination.  For  the  average  men  on  the 
street,  news  as  printed  in  the  current  journals  had  the 
same  interest  that  the  cheap  love  story  of  a  later  genera- 
tion had  for  the  maid-of-all-work,  who  found  therein  an 
opportunity  to  throb  over  the  misfortunes  and  adventures 
of  titled  persons,  a  belief  in  whose  existence  constituted 
one  of  the  joys  and  opiates  of  her  existence. 

Bennett  had  in  mind  a  paper  for  those  who  were  unim- 
portant, an  entirely  novel  idea  at  that  time  —  that  it 
should  be  politically  independent  was  not  absolutely  nec- 
essary, but  this  was  a  quicker  way  of  achieving  his  goal. 
He  was  the  first  to  aspire  to  build  an  institution  that  would 
be  responsive  to  him  and  that  would  propagate  the  prin- 
ciples he  believed  in.  Twenty  years  earlier  this  would 
not  have  been  possible,  for,  twenty  years  earlier,  the 
people  to  whom  he  was  to  appeal  had  not  the  vote,  nor 
was  there  the  interest  in  general  education  that  made  pos- 
sible, among  the  great  unknown  mass,  a  large  circulation. 

The  New  York  Herald  was  in  the  direct  line  of  the 
development  of  American  journalism,  and  its  founder  is, 
for  the  student  of  modern  journalism,  a  most  interesting 


JAMES  GORDON  BENNETT  AND  THE  HERALD      257 

figure,  for  he  paved  the  way  for  things  that  were  revolu- 
tionary in  their  day,  though  commonplace  now.  Fur- 
thermore, it  came  at  a  time  when,  on  account  of  inven- 
tions and  the  great  opening  up  of  material  opportunities, 
the  introduction  of  the  railroads,  etc.,  there  was  every  op- 
portunity for  his  fertile  genius. 

It  is  easy  enough  now  to  see  this  and  to  appreciate  how 
much  he  was  indebted  to  the  journalists  and  journalism 
that  had  come  before  him,  and  to  understand  that,  if  he 
had  not  done  what  he  did,  some  one  else  would  have 
worked  out  about  the  same  time,  and  along  nearly  the 
same  lines,  the  growing  problems  of  journalism.  But  in 
his  own  time  he  was  considered  a  daring  innovator  —  and 
in  some  ways  he  was;  though  from  much  of  what  has 
been  written  about  him  one  might  assume  that  there  was 
no  journalism  before  him.  It  is  true  that  his  personal 
eccentricities  gave  his  enterprise  an  individual  flavor  that 
caused  the  conservative  element  of  society  to  view  him 
with  horror,  though  the  same  conservative  element  came 
later  to  regard  the  New  York  Herald  as  its  special  organ, 
and  to  look  to  it  for  the  proper  reports  of  its  "  social  '* 
doings. 

It  was  the  perusal  of  an  edition  of  Franklin's  autobiog- 
raphy, published  in  Scotland  in  18 17,  that  led  young  Ben- 
nett to  come  to  America.  In  May,  18 19,  being  then  about 
twenty  years  of  age,  he  landed  in  Halifax  without  a  friend 
in  the  western  continent  and  with  less  than  twenty-five 
dollars  in  his  purse.  ^ 

Between  the  day  of  that  landing  and  the  starting  of 
the  New  York  Herald  sixteen  years  elapsed,  during  which 
time  he  worked  in  many  parts  of  the  country  and  obtained 
at  first  hand  an  accurate  understanding  of  American  poli- 
tics. He  made  his  way  to  Boston  and  there  saw,  for  the 
1  Parton,  Famous  Americans,  270. 


258  HISTORY  OF  JOURNALISM 

first  time,  the  curious  tendency  of  the  American  reader 
to  court  what  he  most  dreads.  Joseph  T.  Buckingham's 
New  England  Galaxy,  which  violated  all  the  traditions 
and  decorous  rules  of  the  day,  was  the  most  abused  paper 
in  Boston,  and  the  one  that  was  most  read.  What  most 
impressed  Bennett  on  his  first  insight  into  American  jour- 
nalism was  that,  despite  all  the  abuse,  Buckingham  pos- 
sessed power,  and  that  he  achieved  his  distinction  by  his 
extravagant  and  severe  style. 

Going  to  New  York,  Bennett  saw  what  he  considered 
a  justification  for  Buckingham.  With  the  exception  of 
Mordecai  M.  Noah  of  the  New  York  Advocate,  William 
L.  Stone  of  the  Commercial  Advertiser  and  William 
Coleman  of  the  Evening  Post,  the  papers  were  unim- 
portant and  the  editors  too  much  given  to  personal  and 
futile  abuse. 

After  a  short  experience  in  Charleston  as  ship  news  re- 
porter, Bennett  returned  to  New  York,  and  was  soon 
made  the  Washington  correspondent  of  the  Enquirer. 
During  the  presidential  election  of  1828,  he  was  in  the 
thick  of  the  fight  and  ardently  supported  Andrew  Jack- 
son, showing  considerable  aptitude  as  a  politician  for  a 
man  who  had  been  only  a  few  years  in  the  country. 

The  following  year  he  became  an  associate  editor  of 
the  Courier  and  Enquirer,  under  James  Watson  Webb, 
and  that  journal  was  soon  distinguished  for  its  advocacy 
of  many  of  the  popular  reforms.  It  was  a  strong  Jack- 
son organ,  with  Bennett  enthusiastically  leading  the  fight 
for  the  extension  of  democracy.  The  period  was  rough, 
with  little  regard  for  the  refinement  of  editorial  debate, 
but  the  young  Scotchman  seemed  to  enjoy  it.  Editors 
openly  accused  one  another  of  the  most  disgusting  acts,^ 
and  the  pistol  was  an  editorial  accessory  not  infrequently 
2  Pray,  Memoirs  of  James  Gordon  Bennett,  114. 


JAMES  GORDON  BENNETT  AND  THE  HERALD     259 

used.  So  violent  was  the  party  spirit  that  one  editor  — 
in  Columbia,  South  Carolina  —  sold  his  paper  and  an- 
nounced that  he  retired  from  journalism  with  disgust. 

The  time,  1831-1832,  was  one  in  which  political  con- 
ventions first  came  to  the  fore,  and  became  not  only  popu- 
lar, but  almost  a  fashion.  It  was  at  a  convention  of  the 
National  Republicans,  held  in  Baltimore  in  December, 
183 1,  that  the  first  platform,  in  the  form  of  an  address, 
was  adopted.  One  of  the  planks  in  this  platform  related 
to  the  corruption  of  the  press  by  the  Jackson  administra- 
tion. It  was  asserted  that  Jackson  had  cried  out  against 
the  misuse  of  the  press  by  the  previous  administration, 
but  that  under  him  "  partisan  editors  were  now  the  most 
favored  class  of  pretenders  to  office."  ^ 

It  was  as  the  defender  of  the  President,  and  inciden- 
tally of  northern  office-seeking  editors,  that  Bennett  first 
tested  his  ability  to  develop  a  discussion  of  national  im- 
portance. Jackson  had  sent  to  the  Senate  the  names  of 
four  editors  for  public  office.  Calhoun's  differences  with 
the  President  led  him  to  oppose  those  whom  he  considered 
unfriendly,  with  the  result  that  two  southern  editors  were 
confirmed  by  the  Senate,  two  northern  editors  being  re- 
jected. This  led  Bennett  to  attack  the  Senate.  The  pa- 
pers throughout  the  country  took  this  attack  up  and  much 
debate  ensued  over  the  question  —  *'  Are  editors  eligible 
for  office?"  The  question  was  an  interesting  one  for 
that  time,  and  most  of  the  lawyers  —  who  saw  good  of- 
ifices  going,  from  their  point  of  view,  astray  —  answered 
vigorously  in  the  negative.  All  this  was  inspiring  mate- 
rial for  Bennett;  the  discussion  was  given  another  lively 
twist,  with  the  press  vigorously  depicted  by  him  as  the 
"  living  jury  of  the  nation." 

From  that  time  on  Bennett  became  a  political  force,  as- 
3  McMaster,  vi,  130. 


26o  HISTORY  OF  JOURNALISM 

sisting  in  the  nomination  of  Marcy  as  GoA^ernor  and  of 
Van  Buren  as  Vice-president.  This  was  a  little  too 
much  for  Webb,  the  proprietor  of  the  Courier  and  En- 
quirer, and  he  and  Bennett  parted,  Webb  preferring  to  be 
the  shining  light  of  his  own  paper.  The  ill-feeling  be- 
tween the  two  began  when  Webb  heard  that  Bennett  was 
to  start  his  own  paper.  This  he  did  in  1832,  establishing 
the  New  York  Globe  as  a  two-cent  paper,  but  it  re- 
ceived neither  popular  support  nor  that  financial  assist- 
ance that  he  believed  would  be  forthcoming  from  his  po- 
litical associates. 

When  the  first  number  was  printed,  November  29, 
1832,  he  declared  that  for  eight  years  he  had  labored  in 
the  cause  of  democracy, —  he  omitted  no  year  that  could 
possibly  be  counted,  not  even  his  year  as  a  ship  news  re- 
porter—  that  he  had  assisted  in  the  election  of  Jackson 
and  the  advancement  of  Van  Buren  and  that  now  he  was 
through  with  politics.  His  next  venture  was  in  Phila- 
delphia, where  he  invested,  in  a  paper  called  the  Penn- 
sylvanian,  the  small  sum  of  money  which  he  had  saved. 

If  his  experience  with  politics  and  politicians  had  been 
disappointing  in  New  York,  it  was  bitter  in  Philadel- 
phia. After  he  had  sunk  his  own  money,  he  needed  a 
further  sum  of  two  thousand  five  hundred  dollars,  and 
applied  to  Van  Buren  and  another  political  associate  for 
it.  After  some  correspondence,  it  was  refused.  From 
that  time  on,  James  Gordon  Bennett  was  through  with 
politics. 

We  have  seen  that  the  penny  press,  as  it  was  called, 
originated  in  Philadelphia.  Bennett,  while  there,  gained 
some  knowledge  of  Dr.  Conwell's  experiment  with  The 
Cent.  When  he  came  back  to  New  York  the  Sun  was 
the  talk  of  the  town,  or  at  least,  of  the  profession.  The 
following  year  a  paper  called  the  New  York  Transcript 


JAMES  GORDON  BENNETT  AND  THE  HERALD      261 

was  published  as  a  rival  of  the  Sun.  Both  papers  had 
the  same  printers ;  to  these  printers  Bennett  went  in  1834 
and  had  them  get  him  out  a  small  sheet  which  appeared 
May  6,  1835,  and  which  was  called  the  Nezu  York  Her- 
ald. A  fire  put  him  out  of  business  for  a  short  time,  but 
he  was  not  to  be  downed.  He  arose  early  and  sat  up  late, 
did  all  his  own  reporting,  collected  all  his  own  news, 
wrote  the  entire  paper  himself,  posted  his  own  books  and 
made  out  his  own  bills.  Thus  began  the  New  York 
Herald,  famous  on  two  continents. 

It  has  been  said  of  Bennett  that  he  was  one  of  the 
greatest  news  men  this  country  has  produced.  WJiat  is 
more  interesting  to  us  is  not  what  he  did  after  he  was  suc- 
cessful but  the  manner  of  man  he  was  in  adversity.  We 
can  understand  why  the  public  would  turn  to  him,  despite 
all  the  abuse,  when  we  see  what  he  did  in  Wall  Street. 
He  knew,  as  others  knew,  that  some  of  the  editors  of  the 
six-cent  "  respectable "  dailies  were  heavy  speculators, 
and  that  articles  were  printed  intended  to  affect  the  price 
of  stocks.  Bennett  began  boldly  by  asserting  that  these 
editors  were  "  truly  unfit  by  nature  and  want  of  capacity 
to  come  to  a  right  conclusion  upon  any  subject.  They 
are  still  more  unfit  to  give  correct  opinions  on  French  af- 
fairs in  consequences  of  their  speculating  mania,  and  deep 
interest  in  stock  jobbing.  They  pervert  every  public 
event  from  its  proper  hue  and  coloring,  to  raise  one  stock 
and  depress  another.     There  is  no  truth  in  them." 

This  he  followed  up  by  printing  an  article  that  re- 
flected on  his  former  associate,  the  editor  of  the  Courier 
and  Enquirer.  Webb  waited  for  him  in  Wall  Street  and 
knocked  him  down  with  a  stick.  Bennett's  next  move 
had  the  advantage  of  distinct  novelty.  He  printed  an 
account  of  the  assault. 

"  I  have  to  apologize  to  my  kind  readers,"  he  wrote, 


262  HISTORY  OF  JOURNALISM 

"  for  the  want  of  my  usual  life  to-day."  ^  Referring  to 
his  assailant,  he  stated  that  Webb  had,  "  by  going  up  be- 
hind me,  cut  a  slash  in  my  head  about  one  and  one-half 
inches  in  length  and  through  the  integuments  of  the  skull. 
The  fellow,  no  doubt,  wanted  to  let  out  the  never-failing 
supply  of  good  humor  and  wit,  which  has  created  such  a 
reputation  for  the  Herald,  and  appropriate  the  contents 
to  supply  the  emptiness  of  his  own  thick  skull.  He  did 
not  succeed,  however,  in  rifling  me  of  my  ideas,  .  .  .  He 
has  not  injured  the  skull.  My  ideas,  in  a  few  days,  will 
flow  as  freely  as  ever,  and  he  will  find  it  so,  to  his  cost." 

Street  fights  between  editors  were  not  rare  in  these 
days ;  Philip  Hone  recorded  in  his  diary  that  while  shav- 
ing "  this  morning  at  eight  o'clock  I  witnessed  from  the 
front  window  an  encounter  in  the  street  nearly  opposite, 
between  William  Cullen  Bryant  and  William  L.  Stone; 
the  former  one  of  the  editors  of  the  Evening  Post  and 
the  latter  the  editor  of  the  Commercial  Advertiser/'  * 
Bryant,  the  poet,  began  this  particular  fight  by  hitting 
Stone,  the  historian,  over  the  head  with  a  cane,  but  judg- 
ing from  Hone's  calm  statement,  the  distinguished  and 
urbane  mayor  of  the  city  was  so  little  disturbed  that  the 
argument  did  not  even  interfere  with  his  shaving. 

Bennett's  method  of  treating  his  assault  was  an  innova- 
tion, and  a  success  —  the  circulation  of  the  Herald  con- 
taining this  recital  went  up  to  9,000  copies. 

He  was  now  a  public  character;  something  equally 
novel  was  expected  from  him  with  sufficient  frequency  to 
keep  people  buying  his  paper.  He  kept  his  promise  as  to 
Webb,  with  the  result  that  a  few  months  later  he  was  able 
to  report  another  assault  by  Webb. 

*'  As  I  was  leisurely  pursuing  my  business  yesterday 
in  Wall  Street,  collecting  the  information  which  is  daily 
*  Hone,  Diary,  i,  30. 


JAMES  GORDON  BENNETT  AND  THE  HERALD      263 

disseminated  in  the  Herald,  James  Watson  Webb  came 
up  to  me  on  the  northern  side  of  the  street,  said  something 
which  I  could  not  hear  distinctly,  then  pushed  me  down 
the  stone  steps  leading  to  one  of  the  brokers'  offices,  and 
commenced  fighting  with  a  species  of  brutal  and  demonia- 
cal desperation  characteristic  of  a  fury.  .  .  .  My  damage 
is  a  scratch  about  three  quarters  of  an  inch  in  length,  on 
the  third  finger  of  the  left  hand,  which  I  received  from 
the  iron  railing  I  was  forced  against,  and  three  buttons 
torn  from  my  vest,  which  any  tailor  will  reinstate  for  a 
sixpence.  His  loss  is  a  rent  from  top  to  bottom  of  a 
very  beautiful  black  coat,  which  cost  the  ruffian  $40,  and 
a  blow  in  the  face,  which  may  have  knocked  down  his 
throat  some  of  his  infernal  teeth,  for  anything  I  know. 
Balance  in  my  favor,  $39.94.  ...  As  to  intimidating 
me  or  changing  my  course,  the  thing  cannot  be  done. 
Neither  Webb  nor  any  other  man  shall  or  can  intimidate 
me.  I  tell  the  honest  truth  in  my  paper,  and  I  leave  the 
consequences  to  God.  Could  I  leave  them  in  better  hands  ? 
I  may  be  attacked  —  I  may  be  assailed  — I  may  be  killed 
— I  may  be  murdered  —  but  I  will  never  succumb  —  I 
will  never  abandon  the  cause  of  truth,  morals  and  vir- 
tue." 5 

Webb's  example  was  infectious,  for  in  the  same  year 
Bennett  was  again  assaulted,  this  time  by  a  theatrical 
manager,  Thomas  H.  Hamblin.  ''  To  me,"  was  the  edi- 
torial comment,  ''  all  these  attacks,  falsehoods,  lies,  fab- 
rications are  but  as  the  idle  winds.  They  do  not  ruf- 
fle my  temper  in  the  least.  Conscious  of  virtue,  integ- 
rity, and  the  purest  principles,  I  can  easily  smile  at  the 
assassins,  and  defy  their  daggers. 

"  My  life  has  been  one  invariable  series  of  efforts,  use- 
ful to  the  world  and  honorable  to  myself  —  efforts  to 
5  Herald,  May  10,  1836. 


264  HISTORY  OF  JOURNALISM 

create  an  honorable  reputation  during  life,  and  to  leave 
something  after  my  death  for  which  posterity  will  honor 
my  memory.  I  am  building  up  a  newspaper  establish- 
ment that  will  take  the  lead  of  all  others  that  ever  ap- 
peared in  the  world,  in  virtue,  in  morals,  in  science,  in 
knowledge,  in  industry,  in  taste,  in  power,  in  influence. 
No  public  reputation  can  be  lasting  unless  it  is  built  on 
private  character  and  virtue.  My  whole  private  life  has 
been  one  of  virtue,  integrity  and  honorable  effort,  in 
every  relation  of  society.  Dissipation,  extravagance,  and 
fashionable  follies  never  had  any  charms  for  me.  .  .  . 
This  has  been  the  cause  of  the  success  attending  the 
Herald/'  « 

The  sophisticated  reader  will  feel  that  there  is  a  great 
deal  of  the  ridiculous  in  this,  but  —  viewing  Bennett  as 
an  instrument,  as  one  affecting  thousands, —  it  must  be 
remembered  that  it  was  better  than  shooting  those  who 
resented  his  attacks.  It  must  not  be  supposed  for  a  mo- 
ment that  he  was  the  exponent  of  non-resistance  —  on 
the  contrary,  he  made  those  who  injured  him  suffer  —  but 
he  was  just  Scotch  enough  to  select  his  own  weapons, 
and  fortunately  they  are  the  weapons  of  which  civilization 
has  approved. 

Of  the  personal  tributes  to  himself,  perhaps  the  most 
individual  was  that  contained  in  his  announcement  of  his 
forthcoming  marriage.  With  proper  headlines,  it  ap- 
peared as  follows :  '^ 

®  Pray,  Memoirs,  214,  215. 
T  Herald,  June  i,  1840. 


JAMES  GORDON  BENNETT  AND  THE  HERALD      265 

"TO  THE  READERS  OF  THE  HERALD  — DEC- 
LARATION OF  LOVE  —  CAUGHT  AT  LAST 
—  GOING  TO  BE  MARRIED  —  NEW  MOVE- 
MENT IN  CIVILIZATION. 


"  I  am  going  to  be  married  in  a  few  days.  The 
weather  is  so  beautiful;  times  are  getting  so  good;  the 
prospects  of  poHtical  and  moral  reforms  so  auspicious, 
that  I  cannot  resist  the  divine  instinct  of  honest  nature 
any  longer;  so  I  am  going  to  be  married  to  one  of  the 
most  splendid  women  in  intellect,  in  heart,  in  soul,  in 
property,  in  person,  in  manner,  that  I  have  yet  seen  in 
the  course  of  my  interesting  pilgrimage  through  human 
Hfe. 

'^  .  .  I  cannot  stop  in  my  career.  I  must  fulfill  that 
awful  destiny  which  the  Almighty  Father  has  written 
against  my  name,  in  the  broad  letters  of  life,  against  the 
wall  of  heaven.  I  must  give  the  world  a  pattern  of 
happy  wedded  life,  with  all  the  charities  that  spring  from 
a  nuptial  love.  In  a  few  days  I  shall  be  married  accord- 
ing to  the  holy  rites  of  the  most  holy  Christian  church, 
to  one  of  the  most  remarkable,  accomplished,  and  beauti- 
ful young  women  of  the  age.  She  possesses  a  fortune. 
I  sought  and  found  a  fortune  —  a  large  fortune.  She 
has  no  Stonington  shares  or  Manhattan  stock,  but  in 
purity  and  uprightness  she  is  worth  half  a  million  of  pure 
coin.  Can  any  swindling  bank  show  as  much  ?  In  good 
sense  and  elegance  another  half  a  million;  in  soul,  mind, 
and  beauty,  millions  on  millions,  equal  to  the  whole  specie 
of  all  the  rotten  banks  in  the  world.  Happily  the  patron- 
age of  the  public  to  the  Herald  is  nearly  twenty- five  thou- 
sand dollars  per  annum,  almost  equal  to  a  President's 
salary.     But  property  in  the  world's  goods  was  never 


266  HISTORY  OF  JOURNALISM 

my  object.  Fame,  public  good,  usefulness  in  my  day 
and  generation;  the  religious  associations  of  female  ex- 
cellence; the  progress  of  true  industry, —  these  have  been 
my  dreams  by  night  and  my  desires  by  day. 

*'  In  the  new  and  holy  condition  into  which  I  am  about 
to  enter,  and  to  enter  with  the  same  reverential  feelings 
as  I  would  enter  heaven  itself,  I  anticipate  some  signal 
changes  in  my  feelings,  in  my  views,  in  my  purposes,  in 
my  pursuits.  What  they  may  be  I  know  not  —  time 
alone  can  tell.  My  ardent  desire  has  been  through  life, 
to  reach  the  highest  order  of  human  intelligence,  by  the 
shortest  possible  cut.  Associated,  night  and  day,  in  sick- 
ness and  in  health,  in  war  and  in  peace,  with  a  woman  of 
this  highest  order  of  excellence,  must  produce  some  curi- 
ous results  in  my  heart  and  feelings,  and  these  results  the 
future  will  develop  in  due  time  in  the  columns  of  the 
Herald. 

"  Meantime,  I  return  my  heartfelt  thanks  for  the  en- 
thusiastic patronage  of  the  public,  both  of  Europe  and  of 
America.  The  holy  estate  of  wedlock  will  only  increase 
my  desire  to  be  still  more  useful.  God  Almighty  bless 
you  all." 

"  James  Gordon  Bennett." 

A  distinguished  journalist,  Oswald  Garrison  Villard, 
in  his  criticism  of  the  Bennetts,®  speaking  from  the  van- 
tage ground  of  social  superiority  and  of  impeccable  moral- 
ity, sees  in  the  elder  Bennett  only  a  lack  of  moral  fiber. 
He  admits  that  the  Bennetts,  father  and  son,  were  the 
most  remarkable  news  men  this  country  has  ever  pro- 
duced. '*  The  father  revolutionized  the  whole  science  of 
news-getting,  and  the  son  outdid  him  by  creating  exclu- 
sive news."     Even  this  adverse  critic  finds  that  in  the 

^Nation,  May  25,  1918,  cvi,  615. 


JAMES  GORDON  BENNETT  AND  THE  HERALD      267 

Herald  for  1858-1859,  "  printed  on  splendid  rag  paper 
which  is  white  and  strong  to  this  hour,"  the  news  is  treated 
in  a  manner  very  mild  compared  to  the  conservative  dailies 
of  to-day,  and  what  is  more,  the  accounts  are  accurate. 
Yet  Bennett,  to  his  contemporaries,  was  a  blackguard  and 
all  that  was  horrible,  and  Mr.  Villard,  who  fails  to  see 
Bennett  as  an  instrument  and  whose  attention  is  concen- 
trated on  him  as  an  individual  and  a  sensationalist,  can 
only  see  by  the  reflected  light  of  the  past. 

This  seeing  the  past  in  the  light  of  present-day  devel- 
opments —  developments  which  our  ancestors  could  not 
foretell  —  must  be  studiously  avoided  in  making  histori- 
cal judgments.  Mr.  Villard's  horror  over  the  elder  Ben- 
nett is  no  greater  than  the  disgust  with  which  the  good 
people  of  Boston  viewed  his  own  distinguished  grand- 
father, William  Lloyd  Garrison,  and  it  must  be  remem- 
bered that,  a  century  ago,  the  editors  of  even  the  conserv- 
ative papers  were  men  who  did  things  that  the  editors  of 
the  radical  papers  of  to-day  would  consider  barbarous  and 
vulgar. 

The  elder  Bennett  was  pro-slavery  and  pro-Tammany, 
and  it  was  said  that  not  until  a  mob  had  gathered  in  front 
of  his  office  did  he  become  a  loyal  supporter  of  the 
Union.  And  yet  Count  Gurowski  wrote  in  his  diary,  in 
August,  1861,  that  it  was  ''generally  believed  that  Lin- 
coln read  only  the  Herald/' 

In  the  study  of  the  history  of  journalism  the  personal 
characteristics  of  the  editor  are  not  of  vital  importance, 
unless  those  personal  characteristics  are  obtruded  in  such 
a  way  as  to  corrupt  the  public  mind.  There  is  great 
danger  that,  in  writing  history  and  in  making  historical 
judgments,  we  may  use  the  phraseology  and  assume  the 
moral  tone  of  those  who  would  arrogate  to  themselves 
the  exclusive  control  of  moral  standards. 


268  HISTORY  OF  JOURNALISM 

It  was  said  that  the  elder  Bennett  **  horrified  '*  and 
*'  shocked  "  New  York  by  his  disregard  of  the  conven- 
tions. This  is  a  loose  way  of  speaking  and  a  looser  way 
of  thinking.  Instead  of  New  York,  with  its  300,000 
inhabitants,  being  "  shocked  "  or  "  horrified,"  it  is  prob- 
able that  not  more  than  five  hundred  people  —  which 
would  include  the  socially  elect  and  the  conservative  ed- 
itors —  were  at  all  seriously  disturbed  by  his  peculiar  and, 
as  we  view  it  now,  rather  amusing  style  of  journalism. 
It  is  hard  to  imagine  the  draymen  and  laborers  being 
"  shocked  "  or  "  horrified  "  at  Bennett's  writings,  but  we 
can  readily  understand  how  his  dynamic  outbursts  at- 
tracted them,  where  the  old  conservative  sheets  would 
have  sent  them  to  sleep,  had  they  had  either  the  money 
or  the  inclination  to  purchase  them. 


CHAPTER   XX 

GREELEY  AND  THE  TRIBUNE 

Reasons  for  the  Tribune  —  Greeley's  early  life  —  Through 
Pennsylvania  —  Morning  Post  —  Thurlow  Weed  —  Seward, 
Weed  &  Greeley  partnership  —  Description  of  Weed  —  Log 
Cabin  and  Harrison  campaign  —  Tribune  open  for  liberal 
ideas  —  Hard  times  in  New  York  —  Free  soil  party  encour- 
aged. 

Nominally,  the  New  York  Tribune  was  brought  out  as 
a  protest  against  the  sensational  journalism  that  Bennett 
was  offering  in  the  Herald.  There  were  also  political 
reasons,  the  principal  one  being  that  the  Whigs  desired  a 
paper  that  would  appeal  to  the  laboring  classes,  who  were 
unable  to  get  a  Whig  paper  for  a  penny. 

"  I  had  been  incited  to  this  enterprise,"  Greeley  relates, 
"  by  several  Whig  friends,  who  deemed  a  cheap  daily,  ad- 
dressed more  especially  to  the  laboring  class,  eminently 
needed  in  our  city,  where  the  only  two  cheap  journals  then 
and  still  existing  —  the  Sun  and  the  Herald  —  were  in 
decided,  though  unavowed,  and  therefore  more  effective, 
sympathy  and  affiliation  with  the  Democratic  party. 

"  My  leading  idea  was  the  establishment  of  a  journal 
removed  alike  from  servile  partisanship  on  the  one  hand 
and  from  gagged,  mincing  neutrality  on  the  other.  Party 
spirit  is  so  fierce  and  intolerant  in  this  country  that  the 
editor  of  a  non-partisan  sheet  is  restrained  from  saying 
what  he  thinks  and  feels  on  the  most  vital,  imminent  top- 
ics ;  while,  on  the  other  hand,  a  Democrat,  Whig,  or  Re- 
publican journal  is  generally  expected  to  praise  or  blame, 

269 


270  HISTORY  OF  JOURNALISM 

like  or  dislike,  eulogize  or  condemn,  in  precise  accordance 
with  the  views  and  interest  of  the  party.  I  believed  there 
was  a  happy  medium  between  these  extremes, —  a  position 
from  which  a  journalist  might  openly  and  heartily  advo- 
cate the  principles  and  commend  the  measures  of  that 
party  to  which  his  convictions  allied  him,  yet  frankly  dis- 
sent from  its  course  on  a  particular  question,  and  even 
denounce  its  candidates  if  they  were  shown  to  be  defi- 
cient in  capacity  or  (far  worse)  in  integrity.  I  felt  that 
a  journal  thus  loyal  to  its  guiding  convictions,  yet  ready 
to  expose  and  condemn  unworthy  conduct  or  incidental 
error  on  the  part  of  men  attached  to  its  party,  must  be  far 
more  effective,  even  party-wise,  than  though  it  might 
always  be  counted  on  to  applaud  or  reprobate,  bless  or 
curse,  as  the  party's  prejudices  or  immediate  interest 
might  seem  to  prescribe.  Especially  by  the  Whigs  — 
who  were  rather  the  loosely  aggregated,  mainly  undisci- 
plined opponents  of  a  great  party,  than,  in  the  stricter 
sense,  a  party  themselves  —  did  I  feel  that  such  a  journal 
was  consciously  needed,  and  would  be  fairly  sustained."  ^ 

The  story  of  Horace  Greeley  and  the  Nezu  York 
Tribune  is  of  the  best  American  tradition.  It  is  a  more 
important  part  of  American  history  than  the  stories  of 
some  presidential  administrations.  It  has  been  accepted 
as  an  important  event  in  the  history  of  the  press,  but  has 
not  been  given  its  proper  place  in  that  of  American  poli- 
tics. 

The  history  of  American  journalism  that  begins  with 
Benjamin  Harris  and  Publick  Occurances  might  properly 
end  with  Greeley  and  the  Tribune.  The  world  that  pil- 
loried and  imprisoned  Harris  atoned  amply  to  Greeley. 
The  battle  for  the  right  to  criticize  government  and  to 
make  it  more  human,  the  battle  that  began  with  Harris, 

^  Greeley,  Autobiography,  136,  137. 


GREELEY  AND  THE  TRIBUNE  27 1 

was  brought  to  a  victorious  and  dramatic  close  oy  Greeley. 
From  the  time  when  Harris  presumed  to  tell  the  govern- 
ment what  it  should  not  do  in  the  matter  of  waging  bar- 
barous warfare,  till  the  time  when  Greeley  did  tell  the 
government  what  to  do,  when  he  became  the  most  influen- 
tial single  figure  in  the  selection  of  the  country's  presi- 
dents, there  is  a  steady,  never-failing  progression.  One 
might  almost  expect  to  find  a  blood  descent  from  one  to 
the  other;  indeed,  the  rise  of  journalistic  power,  from 
Harris  to  Greeley,  moves  with  a  precision  such  as  marked 
the  development  of  an  ancient  dynasty. 

But  Greeley,  for  all  the  good  that  he  did  and  all  the 
power  that  he  had  —  and  he  never  used  power  but  for 
good  —  was  not  a  happy  man,  and  he  founded  no  dy- 
nasty. The  great  paper  that  he  founded  passed  to  an- 
other on  his  death,  and  Whitelaw  Reid,  the  man  who  suc- 
ceeded him  —  with  none  of  his  struggles  or  handicaps  — 
was  a  much  happier  man,  and  achieved  far  greater  honors. 

Greeley  himself  tells  us  -  that  from  childhood  he  so 
loved  and  devoured  newspapers  that  he  early  resolved  to 
be  a  printer.  Born  on  a  rocky  farm  in  New  Hampshire 
in  181 1,  he  was  only  eleven  years  of  age  when,  hearing 
that  an  apprentice  was  wanted  in  a  newspaper  office  at 
Whitehall,  he  went  with  his  father  to  obtain  the  job,  but 
he  was  rejected  because  of  his  youth. 

In  the  spring  of  1826  another  opportunity  came,  when 
the  Northern  Spectator  at  East  Poultney,  Vermont,  ad- 
vertised for  an  apprentice.  The  spirit  of  the  times  is  re- 
vealed in  the  fact  that  the  citizens  of  the  town  of  East 
Poultney  had  decided  to  finance  the  journal,  private  cap- 
ital having  come  to  the  conclusion  that  there  was  no  profit 
in  the  undertaking. 

Greeley's  father  was  moving  for  the  west,  one  of  the 

^Recollections  of  a  Busy  Life,  61. 


272  HISTORY  OF  JOURNALISM 

great  number  who  had  grown  tired  of  the  struggle  for 
existence  in  the  east,  and  in  consequence  was  very  glad  to 
allow  young  Horace  to  make  arrangements  with  the  pub- 
lishers at  East  Poultney.  This  was  done,  and  the  boy 
went  to  work  for  his  board,  with  the  understanding  that 
after  he  became  twenty  years  of  age,  he  was  to  receive 
$40  a  year  —  less  than  a  dollar  a  week.  This  helps  us  to 
understand  why  men  were  willing  to  seek  opportunity  in 
the  western  wilderness. 

His  apprenticeship  over,  Greeley  started  out  to  seek 
his  "  future,"  a  cardinal  belief  of  young  America  of  that 
time  being  that  the  golden  opportunity  awaited  him  who 
persistently  sought  it.  Romantic  though  this  seems  now, 
it  was  the  spirit  that  made  possible  the  emigration  of  great 
numbers.  He  traveled  from  East  Poultney  to  Lake  Erie 
and  thence  to  his  father's  house  in  Pennsylvania,  catch- 
ing steamboats  when  possible,  or  a  canal  boat  now  and 
then,  but,  for  the  greater  part  of  the  journey,  afoot. 
Such  a  trip,  which  now  takes  but  ten  or  twelve  hours,  at 
that  time  could  not  be  made  in  less  than  two  weeks. 

After  exhausting  the  possibilities  of  the  printing  shops 
in  Chautauqua  County,  Greeley  visited  Erie,  Pennsylvania 
(about  1830),  and  worked  on  the  Gazette,  which  had 
been  started  twenty  years  before  by  Joseph  M.  Sterrett; 
this  was,  he  says,  the  first  newspaper  on  which  he  had 
ever  worked  that  made  any  money  for  its  owner. 

On  his  way  back  he  applied,  unsuccessfully,  for  a  po- 
sition on  the  Wyoming  Herald  in  Wilkesbarre,  Pennsyl- 
vania. He  now  began  to  realize  that  there  was  a  surfeit 
of  printers  traveling  about  the  country,  and  he  turned 
toward  the  great  city. 

Between  18 18  and  1830,  he  tells  us,  thousands  and  tens 
of  thousands  of  men  were  unwillingly  idle.  The  coun- 
try that  had  once  boasted  its  political  unanimity  was  now 


GREELEY  AND  THE  TRIBUNE  273 

torn  in  dissension.  As  men  contemplated  their  condition, 
they  turned  bitterly  to  the  government  for  some  kind  of 
relief.  The  country  suffered  from  a  dearth  of  money 
and,  as  the  pressing  need  for  money  increased  and  mer- 
chants and  banks  struggled  to  avert  bankruptcy,  the  po- 
litical furies  enveloped  the  East,  especially  the  city  of 
New  York,  which  was  rapidly  becoming  the  financial  cen- 
ter of  the  nation. 

When  Greeley  arrived  in  New  York  in  August,  183 1 
—  a  tall,  thin  country  boy  of  twenty  —  he  had  not  a 
friend  within  two  hundred  miles  and  only  ten  dollars  in 
his  pocket. 

On  the  first  day  he  visited  two-thirds  of  the  printing 
offices  on  Manhattan  Island,  before  securing  employment. 
For  the  next  eighteen  months  he  worked  at  odd  jobs,  but 
managed  to  save  money ;  he  was  then  induced  by  Dr.  D. 
H.  Shepherd  to  start  a  small  printing  shop,  with  the  idea 
of  putting  out  a  cheap  paper.  The  forty  dollars'  worth 
of  type  needed  for  this  enterprise  was  bought  on  credit. 

Shepherd  was  the  originator  of  the  idea  of  a  cheap 
paper,  his  belief  being  that  a  paper  sold  on  the  streets  by 
newsboys  would  be  a  great  success.  The  Morning  Post, 
as  the  new  venture  was  called,  came  out  January  i,  1833, 
but,  a  terrible  storm  having  driven  the  people  off  the 
streets,  no  one  bought  the  paper.  The  enterprise  lasted 
but  three  weeks. 

This  experience  had  given  Greeley  a  taste  for  editor- 
ship, and  with  only  enough  money  to  pay  the  printer,  he 
shortly  afterward  brought  out  the  New  Yorker,  a  small 
paper  of  literary  and  general  intelligence.  This  was 
established  in  1834  and  attracted  immediate  attention 
among  those  interested  in  politics.  "  Those  who  read  it 
became  Whigs.'*  His  mind  acted  upon  other  minds  of  a 
certain  constitution  with  wonderful  magnetism,  attract- 


274  HISTORY  OF  JOURNALISM 

ing  thousands  of  readers  by  his  marvel otis  gift  of  ex- 
pression and  the  broad  sympathies  and  clear  discernments 
that  characterized  his  writings.^ 

Although  Bennett  never  referred  to  it,  Greeley's 
friendly  biographer  is  authority  for  the  statement  that, 
while  he  was  conducting  his  job  office,  under  the  name 
of  Greeley  and  Company,  James  Gordon  Bennett,  "  a 
person  then  well  known  as  a  smart  writer  for  the  press," 
visited  him  one  day  and,  exhibiting  fifty  dollars  and 
some  other  notes  of  smaller  denomination  as  his  cash 
capital,  invited  him  to  join  in  setting  up  a  new  daily 
paper.  ^ 

With  his  modest  venture,  the  Nezv  Yorker,  Horace 
Greeley  began  his  rise  to  power  and  influence,  for  among 
those  attracted  by  his  writings  was  one  of  the  strongest 
and  most  interesting  characters  in  American  history, — 
Thurlow  Weed,  the  "  man  behind  the  scenes."  Weed  was 
the  first  real  political  boss  of  New  York  State.  He  was 
a  journalist  of  ability,  but  his  sole  interest  in  life  was 
politics.  To  a  great  extent  he  modeled  his  life  on  that  of 
the  man  whom  he  later  displaced,  Edwin  Croswell. 
Croswell  was  state  printer,  the  editor  of  the  Albany 
Argus,  a  politician  of  consummate  ability  and  the  jour- 
nalistic advisor  of  the  **  Albany  Regency,"  the  powerful 
ring  that  governed  Democratic  politics.  What  he  did  in 
a  small  way,  Weed  did  on  a  large  scale,  achieving  such 
wealth,  power  and  influence  as  no  politician  before  him 
had  even  dreamed  of. 

Weed's  early  life  was  not  unlike  that  of  Greeley, 
though  not  marked  by  the  same  poverty.  He  began  his 
active  journalistic  career  by  enlisting  Whig  support  for  a 
paper  with  which  to  fight  the  influential  Albany  Argus, 

3  Alexander,  ii,  27. 

*  Parton,  Life  of  Greeley,  117. 


GREELEY  AND  THE  TRIBUNE  2ys 

and,  on  March  22,  1830,  he  estabHshed  the  Albany  Eve- 
fling  Journal. 

At  the  time  when  Greeley  came  to  Weed's  attention  the 
Whigs  were  about  to  enter  the  campaign  of  1838,  with 
William  H.  Seward,  then  the  bright  particular  star  of  the 
party,  as  their  candidate  for  governor.  Weed  was 
Seward's  friend  and  advisor  —  a  very  Warwick.  He 
was  preeminently  "  practical  " ;  being  political  boss  of  the 
state,  he  knew  how  to  raise  large  campaign  contributions. 
A  weekly  Whig  paper  was  needed  for  this  campaign,  and 
Weed  decided  that  the  editor  of  the  New  Yorker,  whose 
name  he  did  not  even  know  at  the  time,  was  the  man  to 
edit  the  paper.  He  went  to  New  York  and  called  at 
Greeley's  office  on  Ann  Street,  inquiring  for  the  editor. 
"  A  young  man  with  light  hair,  blond  complexion,  with 
coat  off  and  sleeves  rolled  up,  was  standing  at  a  case  with 
'  stick  '  in  hand,  and  he  replied  that  he  was  the  editor,  and 
that  his  name  was  Horace  Greeley."  ^ 

Greeley  accepted  Weed's  offer,  agreeing  to  edit  the 
paper  as  desired,  and  also  to  spend  at  least  two  days  each 
week  in  Albany.  The  paper  was  called  the  Jeffersonian 
and  gave  much  satisfaction  to  the  political  dictator. 
Greeley's  work  even  then  was  marked  by  such  maturity 
of  thought  and  felicity  of  expression  as  was  given  to  few 
men  in  his  day.  While  he  was  editing  the  Jeffersonian 
in  Albany,  he  was  Weed's  personal  guest,  and  the  two 
became  intimate,  not  only  politically  but  socially.  That 
was  the  beginning  of  the  famous  Seward- Weed-Greeley 
political  partnership,  the  dissolution  of  which  resulted  in 
the  nomination  of  Abraham  Lincoln,  instead  of  William 
H.  Seward,  for  the  Presidency  in  i860. 

There  was  idealism  and  patriotism  in  this  partnership, 
but  there  was  also  a  sordid  side,  as  we  shall  see  later.  In 
^  Weed's  Autobiography,  466. 


276  HISTORY  OF  JOURNALISM 

a  personal  way  there  was  not  missing,  however,  an  ap- 
pealing note,  such  as  was  revealed  in  the  correspondence 
of  Seward,  when  he  wrote  to  his  wife  that  Weed  had 
gone  to  New  York  '*  on  an  errand  of  love  and  tenderness 
to  Greeley,"  who  was  worried  under  the  weight  of  do- 
mestic grievances,  and  whose  health  had  been  impaired 
"  from  exposure  in  his  nightly  walks  from  his  office." 
"  He  brought  Greeley's  child  home,"  Seward  wrote,  "  to 
keep  until  Greeley  himself  had  recovered  his  health." 

When  Seward  was  elected  governor  in  1838,  Weed  was 
the  acknowledged  boss.  He  was  consulted  on  all  ap- 
pointments, and  there  were,  according  to  Seward,  four- 
teen hundred  of  them.  The  State  Senate,  however,  was 
under  Democratic  control,  but  Weed  overcame  that  diffi- 
culty by  going  to  New  York,  using  his  new-found  power 
to  collect  $8,000,  and  putting  the  money  into  Democratic 
districts,  thus  gaining  control  of  the  entire  Legislature. 

Later  in  life,  after  their  bitter  quarrel,  Greeley  wrote 
concerning  Weed  and  Seward : 

"  Mr.  Thurlow  Weed  was  of  coarser  mold  and  fiber 
—  tall,  robust,  dark-featured,  shrewd,  resolute,  and  not 
over-scrupulous  — keen-sighted,  though  not  far-seeing. 
Writing  slowly  and  with  difficulty,  he  was  for  twenty 
years  the  most  sententious  and  pungent  writer  of  edi- 
torial paragraphs  on  the  American  press. 

**  In  pecuniary  matters,  he  was  generous  to  a  fault 
while  poor ;  he  is  said  to  be  less  so  since  he  became  rich ; 
but  I  am  no  longer  in  a  position  to  know.  I  cannot 
doubt,  however,  that  if  he  had  never  seen  Wall  Street  or 
Washington,  had  never  heard  of  the  Stock  Board,  or  had 
lived  in  some  yet  undiscovered  country,  where  legislation 
is  never  bought  nor  sold,  his  life  would  have  been  more 
blameless,  useful  and  happy."  ^ 

•Busy  Life,  3^3- 


GREELEY  AND  THE  TRIBUNE  277 

When^the  Harrison  and  Tyler  campaign  came  on  In 
1840, 'Greeley,  having  come  to  be  considered  a  valuable 
member  of  the  party,  was  made  the  editor  of  another  po- 
litical journal,  the  Log  Cabin.  This  title  was  the  re- 
sult of  an  article  that,  at  the  time  of  Harrison's  nomina- 
tion, the  Baltimore  Afuerican  had  written: 

"  Give  him  a  barrel  of  hard  cider  and  settle  a  pension 
of  two  thousand  a  year  upon  him,  and,  our  word  for  it, 
he  will  sit  for  the  remainder  of  his  days  contented  in  a 
log  cabin."  This  sneer  was  the  basis  of  a  historic  battle- 
cry,  which  was  first  used  at  Harrisburg,  Pennsylvania, 
January  20,  1840,  with  the  result  that  *'  the  log  cabin  and 
hard  cider  "  became  the  slogan  of  the  Whig  party. 

In  his  biography  of  Henry  Clay,»Carl  Schurz  declared 
that  "  there  has  never  been  a  presidential  canvass  in 
which  there  has  been  less  thought."  The  parades,  the 
songs  and  the  log  cabin  cries  were  all  part  of  an  extraor- 
dinary excitement,  but  that  excitement  meant  that  the 
people  were  tired  of  the  party  in  power  and  their  ebul- 
lience was  simply  the  outward  evidence  of  their  intention 
to  throw  off  their  bonds. 

Greeley  claimed  much  credit  for  the  Whig  victory  that 
followed.  He  asserted  that  the  Log  Cabin  had  helped 
arouse  most  of  the  enthusiasm,  citing  the  fact  that  it 
achieved  the  phenomenal  circulation  of  80,000.''^  He 
therefore  determined  to  try  a  greater  field  and,  with  a 
capital  of  $1,000,  lent  him  by  a  Whig  friend,  he  brought 
out  the  Tribune  on  April  10,  1841. 

When  the  Tribune  appeared,  the  Courier  and  Enquirer, 
the  New  York  American,  the  Express,  and  the  Commer- 
cial Advertiser  were  Whig  papers,  all  in  the  six-cent  class. 
The  Evening  Post  and  the  Journal  of  Cornmerce  leaned 
to  the  Democratic  party,  while  the  Sun  and  the  Herald, 

'  Busy  Life,  134. 


278  HISTORY  OF  JOURNALISM 

though  affecting  to  be  neutral,  were  really  inclined  to  be 
Democratic. 

From  the  very  beginning  Greeley  established  the  fact 
that  he  was  ready  to  fight  for  his  place  in  the  newspaper 
world;  he  had  as  his  assistant  Henry  J.  Raymond,  of 
whom  we  shall  speak  later,  and  he  very  quickly  attracted 
to  himself  and  his  paper  all  those  who  had  reform  causes 
at  heart;  all,  indeed,  who  were  in  sympathy  with  the  op- 
pressed. Margaret  Fuller  was  not  only  a  contributor  to 
the  Tribune,  but  lived  with  Air.  and  Mrs.  Greeley  at  their 
country  home  on  Forty-ninth  Street.  In  this  way  he 
became,  with  her,  a  devoted  champion  of  the  emancipation 
of  women  and  a  believer  in  the  fullest  recognition  of  so- 
cial and  political  equality  with  "  the  rougher  sex." 

The  same  spirit  led  him  to  open  his  columns  to  the 
socialists  of  that  day.  Fourier  was  then  the  rage  among 
the  intellectuals,  due  in  great  measure  to  the  efforts  of 
Alfred  Brisbane,  who  presented  Fourier's  ideas  to  the 
public  in  a  series  of  articles,  which  ran  for  two  or  three 
years  in  the  Tribune. 

Greeley  attributed  his  own  conversion  to  Fourierism  to 
the  fearful  conditions  that  he  saw  in  the  winter  of  1837- 
38,  when  destitution  and  suffering  pervaded  the  city. 

"  I  lived  that  winter,"  he  says,  '*  in  the  Sixth  Ward, — 
then,  as  now,  eminent  for  filth,  squalor,  rags,  dissipation, 
want,  and  misery.  A  public  meeting  of  its  citizens  was 
duly  held  early  in  December  and  an  organization  formed 
thereat,  by  which  committees  were  appointed  to  canvass 
the  ward  from  house  to  house,  collect  funds  from  those 
who  could  and  would  spare  anything,  ascertain  the  na- 
ture and  extent  of  the  existing  destitution,  and  devise 
ways  and  means  for  its  systematic  relief.  Very  poor 
myself,  I  could  give  no  money,  or  but  a  mite;  so  I  gave 
time  instead,  and  served,  through  several  days,  on  one  of 


GREELEY  AND  THE  TRIBUNE  279 

the  visiting  committees.  I  thus  saw  extreme  destitution 
more  closely  than  I  had  ever  before  observed  it  and  was 
enabled  to  scan  its  repulsive  features  intelligently.  I  saw 
two  families,  including  six  or  eight  children,  burrowing 
in  one  cellar  under  a  stable, — a  prey  to  famine  on  the 
one  hand,  and  to  vermin  and  cutaneous  maladies  on  the 
other,  with  sickness  adding  its  horrors  to  those  of  a  pol- 
luted atmosphere  and  a  wintry  temperature.  I  saw  men 
who  each,  somehow,  supported  his  family  on  an  income 
of  $5  a  week  or  less,  yet  who  cheerfully  gave  something 
to  mitigate  the  suffering  of  those  who  were  really  poor. 
I  saw  three  widows,  with  as  many  children,  living  in  an 
attic  on  the  profits  of  an  apple  stand  which  yielded  less 
than  $3  a  week,  and  the  landlord  came  in  for  a  full  third 
of  that.  But  worst  to  bear  of  all  was  the  pitiful  plea  of 
stout,  resolute,  single  young  men  and  women :  "  We  do 
not  want  alms;  we  are  not  beggars;  we  hate  to  sit  here 
day  by  day,  idle  and  useless ;  help  us  to  work, —  we  want 
no  other  help ;  why  is  it  that  we  have  nothing  to  do  ?  "  ^ 

Greeley's  socialistic  beliefs  led  to  a  warm  debate  with 
his  erstwhile  protege,  Henry  J.  Raymond,  when  the  lat- 
ter, leaving  Greeley  and  the  Tribune,  went  to  work  for 
James  Watson  Webb  on  the  Courier  and  Enquirer.  This 
was  an  additional  reason  for  the  coolness,  which  developed 
into  actual  enmity,  between  the  two. 

It  was,  however,  by  his  vigorous  championship  of  the 
Free  Soil  party  and  by  the  whole-souled  manner  in  which 
he  later  threw  himself  into  the  Republican  party,  that 
Greeley  achieved  his  greatest  fame  before  the  war.  The 
Democratic  party  was  dominated  by  the  South ;  the  Whigs 
were  a  weak  opposition,  led  mainly  by  men  who  did  not 
have  the  courage  of  their  convictions  and  who  did  not 
sense  the  struggle  that  was  coming.  The  Free  Soil  party 
•  Greeley,  Busy  Life,  145. 


28o  HISTORY  OF  JOURNALISM 

grew  up  in  the  attempt  to  check  the  endeavors  of  the 
slaveholders  to  extend  slave  territory;  it  eventually  sup- 
planted the  Whig  party,  which  was  never  more  than  a 
party  of  opposition.  Although  it  included  all  those  who, 
for  various  reasons,  were  opposed  to  the  Democrats,  the 
Whig  party  never  had  strong  and  uniting  principles  of  its 
own. 

Despite  the  fact  that  there  were  Free  Soil  Democrats, 
the  Democratic  party  had  become  the  party  of  the  South 
and  of  slavery,  even  at  this  time,  1840-1850.  True  it 
was  that  in  the  Whig  party  was  to  be  found  the  only  ef- 
fective opposition  to  the  extension  of  slavery,  but  many 
of  its  leaders  were  so  anxious  to  conciliate  sentiment 
among  pro-slavery  Northerners  that  a  new  party  with 
firmer  principles  was  inevitable.  In  the  movement  for 
such  a  party,  Greeley  and  the  Tribune  rapidly  became 
leaders. 

So  excellent  a  political  authority  as  James  G.  Blaine 
gives  credit  to  Greeley  for  having  a  national  influence  as 
early  as  1848.  He  says  that  Seward's  influence,  backed 
by  the  organizing  skill  of  Thurlow  Weed  and  the  edi- 
torial power  of  Horace  Greeley,  was  responsible  for  the 
election  of  General  Taylor,  and  adds,  *'  Perhaps  in  no 
other  national  election  did  three  men  so  completely  con- 
trol the  result."  « 

'*  There  were  many  other  journals  in  both  the  North 
and  the  South,"  says  another  writer,  "  but  there  was  only 
one  Tribune  in  the  entire  country."  ^^ 

The  weekly  Tribune  had  become  the  great  anti-slavery 
journal  of  the  period,  and  "  went  into  almost  every  par- 
sonage, college,  and  farmer's  home  in  the  Northern 
states."     It  was  "  the  spokesman  of  the  most  numerous 

®  Twenty  Years  in  Congress,  i,  82. 
10  Wilson,  Life  of  Dana,  99. 


GREELEY  AND  THE  TRIBUNE  281 

and  determined  body  of  men  ever  associated  for  public 
purposes 'in  the  United  States."  ^^  ''The  New  York 
Tribune''  says  Charles  Francis  Adams,  "  during  those 
years  was  the  greatest  educational  factor,  economically 
and  morally,  this  country  has  ever  known."  ^^ 

11  Pike,  First  Blows  of  the  Civil  War,  xiv. 

12  ^n  Undeveloped  Function,  64. 


CHAPTER    XXI 
THE  TIMES  AND  GREELEY'S  TRIUMPH 

Greeley's  Characterization  of  Raymond  —  Need  for  the  Times 

—  Greeley  a  great  moral  factor —  Faults  in  New  York  papers 

—  Times  issued  —  Birth  of  Republican  party  —  Weakness  of 
Seward — Greeley's  longing  for  leadership  —  Interview  with 
Weed  —  Raymond  nominated  for  lieutenant-governor  —  Let- 
ter to  Seward  —  Weed  and  Seward  lacking  in  perception  — 
Lincoln-Douglas  debates  —  Chicago  convention  of  i860. 

As  Bennett  and  the  Herald  had  inspired  Greeley  to 
make  in  the  Tribune,  a  better  paper,  so  it  was  Greeley  and 
his  Tribune  that  inspired  Raymond  to  be  the  sponsor  of 
a  paper  that  would  be  less  radical,  less  addicted  to  all  the 
*'  isms,"  than  the  Tribune. 

Raymond,  as  we  learn  from  his  correspondence  with 
R.  W.  Griswold,  had  gone  to  Greeley  when  a  youth, 
brimming  over  with  idealism  and  literary  ambition.  *'  I 
never  found  another  person,  barely  of  age  and  just  from 
his  studies,  who  evinced  so  much  and  so  versatile  ability 
in  journalism  as  he  did,"  Greeley  wrote  later  of  Raymond. 
"Abler  and  stronger  men  I  may  have  met;  a  cleverer, 
readier,  more  generally  efficient  journalist  I  never  saw. 
He  is  the  only  assistant  with  whom  I  ever  felt  required 
to  remonstrate  for  doing  more  work  than  any  human 
brain  and  frame  could  be  expected  to  endure.  His  serv- 
ices were  more  valuable  in  proportion  to  their  cost  than 
those  of  any  one  who  ever  worked  on  the  Tribune.''  ^ 

As  Raymond  came  to  know  the  city  and  the  men  influ- 
ential in  politics,  he  saw  that  there  was  room  for  another 

1  Alexander,  ii,  160. 

282 


THE  TIMES  AND  GREELEY'S  TRIUMPH       283 

paper,  a  journal  that  would  appeal  to  those  who  thought 
Greeley  extreme  and  Bennett  impossible.  His  political 
associates,  Weed  and  Seward,  also  saw  that  a  conserva- 
tive paper,  at  a  popular  price,  would  tend  to  bring  into  the 
Whig  party  a  conservative  element  that  had  not  hitherto 
been  attracted.  Weed,  the  practical  man,  saw  that  there 
were  business  men  who  could  be  brought  into  the  party,  if 
some  of  the  radicalism  could  be  curbed. 

The  Times  entered  the  field  at  a  time  when  the  anti- 
slave  forces  in  the  east  needed  such  an  organ.  The  suc- 
cess of  Seward  was  the  success  of  the  new  party,  and 
Weed  and  Seward  needed  just  such  a  paper.  The  years 
between  1850  and  i860  were  filled  with  cross  currents; 
the  wisest  men  declared  that  they  were  unable  to  foretell 
the  future,  although  it  was  only  those  who  were  called 
"  hotheads  "  who  realized  the  truth  that  lay  in  Seward's 
words, —  that  a  conflict  was  inevitable.  No  one  could 
foresee  that  Greeley,  Seward,  Weed,  and  Raymond,  the 
four  men  who  had  made  the  Republican  party  possible, 
would  quarrel  among  themselves,  over  a  mere  matter  of 
patronage,  to  the  discomfiture  of  all  of  them,  but  to  the 
benefit  of  the  nation. 

Nor  would  the  boldest  prophet  have  suggested  that  the 
introduction  of  penny  journalism,  producing  such  pro- 
slavery  journals  as  the  New  York  Sun  and  the  New  York 
Herald,  would  ever  be  considered  as  one  of  the  important 
steps  that  led  to  the  spread  of  journalism  among  the 
masses,  and  eventually  made  the  question  of  slavery  the 
one  that  held  the  North  as  a  political  unit.  Had  the 
question  of  secession  come  before  the  country  disassoci- 
ated from  slavery,  it  is  difficult  to  conceive  that  Lincoln 
would  have  received  the  support  that  he  did.  Strong 
abolitionist  as  he  was,  Greeley  was  one  of  those  in  favor 
of  allowing  the  South  to  take  her  slaves  and  go. 


284  HISTORY  OF  JOURNALISM 

As  we  have  contended  all  through  this  book,  the  moral 
issue  lay  with  the  people ;  it  was  hammered  out  by  agents 
as  blind  and  as  grimy,  politically,  as  the  men  who  work 
before  an  actual  furnace.  The  contentions  and  political 
maneuverings  of  these  men  were  but  the  means  to  an  end. 

When  Thurlow  Weed,  in  1848,  wished  to  retire  from 
the  Albany  Evening  Journal,  a  banker  of  Albany,  George 
Jones,  (who  afterwards  became  Raymond's  partner,)  of- 
fered the  Journal  to  Raymond,  but  the  negotiations  fell 
through.  Later  Raymond  began  planning  for  a  news- 
paper in  New  York.  As  interesting  as  was  Bennett's 
visit  to  Greeley,  to  interest  him  in  the  Herald,  is  the  fact 
that  Raymond  enlisted  in  his  initial  negotiations,  Charles 
Anderson  Dana,  then  of  the  Tribune. 

Seward's  son,  at  that  time  a  writer  on  the  'Albany  Jour- 
nal, tells  of  a  call  made  by  Dana  of  the  Tribune  and 
Raymond  of  the  Courier  and  Enquirer  on  Thurlow  Weed, 
to  seek  his  advice  regarding  plans  for  a  new  morning 
journal  in  New  York.  Raymond  felt  that  somewhere 
between  the  Herald  and  the  Tribune  there  was  room  in 
the  city  for  a  paper  that  would  be  conservative  in  poli- 
tics, carefully  accurate  in  its  news,  and  without  "  reforms 
or  sensations."  Dana  believed  that  Weed's  short,  crisp 
editorial  articles,  critical  and  humorous,  were  the  kind 
that  would  be  most  popular. 

Raymond  spent  the  two  years  following  Weed's  offer 
in  Albany,  first  as  a  member  of  the  legislature,  and  then 
as  Speaker  of  the  Assembly.  During  those  winters  he 
had  many  conversations  with  George  Jones ;  what  finally 
led  to  the  decision  to  undertake  the  paper  was  informa- 
tion received  by  Jones,  to  the  effect  that  the  Tribune  had 
made  a  profit  of  $60,000  in  one  year. 

The  time  selected  for  the  introduction  of  a  new  paper 
was,  as  Raymond's  associate  and  biographer  has  set  forth, 


THE  TIMES  AND  GREELEY'S  TRIUMPH       285 

exceedingly  propitious.  The  Journal  of  Commerce  was 
dull ;  the  Express,  a  morning  paper,  ''  behind  the  times  " ; 
the  Sun,  too  much  patronized  by  *'  domestics  in  quest  of 
employment  and  by  cartmen  dozing  at  street  corners  wait- 
ing for  a  job."  The  Evening  Post,  which  published  one 
edition  at  half-past  two  in  the  afternoon,  was  noted  chiefly 
for  "  its  vigorous  espousal  of  the  doctrines  of  free  trade." 
The  Commercial  Advertiser  was  merely  a  rival  of  the 
Post.  The  Herald  contained  much  *'  printed  filth  " ;  the 
Tribune  "  had  got  into  bad  ways  "  —  mainly  through  its 
editor's  enthusiastic  advocacy  of  the  theories  of  Charles 
Fourier.^ 

After  many  difficulties  the  first  number  of  the  Times 
was  brought  out  on  September  18,  1851.  Raymond's 
salutation  was  as  cautious  as  could  be, —  there  was  not 
even  a  declaration  of  principles.  He  had  declared  in  a 
preliminary  statement  that  the  Times  would  not  **  coun- 
tenance any  improper  interference  on  the  part  of  the  peo- 
ple of  one  locality  with  the  institutions,  or  even  the  preju- 
dices, of  any  other."  His  opening  editorial  showed  the 
same  cautious  regard  for  the  sensitive  Southerner,  in  the 
statement,  "  there  are  few  things  in  the  world  which  it  is 
worth  while  to  get  angry  about;  and  they  are  just  the 
things  that  anger  will  not  improve."  ^ 

What  all  three  —  Raymond,  Weed  and  Seward  — 
failed  to  realize  was  the  fact  that  all  the  temperate  discus- 
sion in  the  world  was  not  going  to  bridge  the  chasm  be- 
tween the  slave-holding  South  and  those  men  and  women 
of  the  North  who  believed  that  slavery  was  a  crime.  As 
politicians,  they  hoped  that,  by  a  careful  policy  of  drift, 
immediate  difficulties  might  be  avoided  and,  now  and  then, 
a  political  victory  achieved. 

2  Maverick,  Henry  J.  Raymond,  52. 
^New  York  Times,  September  18,  185 1. 


286  HISTORY  OF  JOURNALISM 

The  political  situation  might  have  continued  unchanged 
for  several  years  had  not  Stephen  A.  Douglas  intro- 
duced in  December,  1853,  i^  the  Senate,  the  famous 
"  Nebraska  Bill,"  which  affirmed  that  the  Clay  compro- 
mise of  1850  had  repealed  the  Missouri  Compromise  of 
1820.  Almost  immediately  the  country  was  in  a  fer- 
ment, and  the  anti-slavery  Whigs  found  themselves  able 
to  enroll  under  the  same  banner  with  the  Free  Soil  Demo- 
crats. The  parties  in  the  country  now  came  to  be  dis- 
tinguished as  ''  Nebraska "  or  "  anti-Nebraska."  In 
Jackson,  Michigan,  on  July  6,  1854,  the  Republican  party 
was  born,  the  result  of  this  last  move  of  the  slave  power. 

Here  Seward  distinguished  himself.  In  the  struggle 
for  the  repeal  of  the  Missouri  Compromise,  he  made  a 
greater  fight  in  1854  than  Rufus  King  had  made  in  1820 
over  the  original  enactment.  It  was  Seward  who  an- 
swered arguments  and  marshaled  the  opposition;  whose 
final  great  appeal  concluded  in  words  that  few  people  at 
that  time  realized  as  fundamental  truth :  "  The  slavery 
agitation  you  deprecate  so  much  is  an  eternal  struggle 
between  conservatism  and  progress;  between  truth  and 
error,  between  right  and  wrong.  .  .  .  You  may  legislate 
and  abrogate  and  abnegate  as  you  will,  but  there  is  a  su- 
perior power  that  overrules  all ;  that  overrules  not  only  all 
your  actions  and  all  your  refusals  to  act,  but  all  human 
events,  to  the  distant,  but  inevitable  result  of  the  equal 
and  universal  liberty  of  all  men."  ^ 

An  anti-Nebraska  State  convention  was  held  at  Sara- 
toga on  August  16,  1854;  Horace  Greeley  offered  the 
resolutions  and  Raymond  was  a  conspicuous  figure.  It 
was  here  that  Greeley  was  doing  his  greatest  work,  in 
urging  the  formation  of  a  new  party  made  up  of  Whigs, 
Free  Soilers  and  the  anti-Nebraska  Democrats;  it  was 

*  F.  W.  Seward,  Life  of  W.  H.  Seward,  ii,  221. 


THE  TIMES  AND  GREELEY'S  TRIUMPH       287 

here  that  Seward,  Raymond  and  Weed,  showed  their  lack 
of  vision.  The  New  York  Senator  —  whose  position  in 
view  of  his  opposition  to  the  Kansas-Nebraska  bill,  was  a 
commanding  one  —  felt  that  the  Whigs  were  still  numer- 
ically strong  enough  to  be  the  leaders  in  the  movement 
and  that  a  new  party  was  not  needed.  ''  Seward  hangs 
fire,"  wrote  Dr.  Bailey;  "he  agrees  with  Thurlow 
Weed."  « 

Strong  in  debate,  Seward  was  weak  in  council,  due  to 
his  great  susceptibility  to  Weed  and  to  Weed's  advice. 
That  Weed,  in  this  crisis,  was  actuated  by  any  other  than 
the  highest  motives,  is  incredible,  to  any  one  who  reads 
and  studies  his  life;  what  is  evident  is  that  Weed,  like  any 
man  whose  bent  has  been  thoroughly  political,  was  nat- 
urally opposed  to  anything  so  revolutionary  as  the  forma- 
tion of  a  new  party,  and  was  most  unsympathetic,  as  are 
all  practical  politicians,  toward  the  initiator  or  the  moral 
enthusiast.  Raymond,  in  the  Times,  naturally  reflected 
the  views  of  Seward  and  Weed,  but  furnished  a  plausible 
defense  for  their  position.  The  result  was  that  at  the 
Saratoga  convention  in  August,  nothing  was  done  except 
to  agree  to  re-assemble  in  September.  When  the  regu- 
lar Whig  convention  met  in  September,  the  differences 
among  the  Democrats  made  it  appear  that  the  Whig  can- 
didate for  governor  would  be  elected.  This  prospect,  as 
much  as  anything  else,  was  what  had  held  Weed  back 
from  a  sympathetic  reception  of  the  idea  of  a  new  party. 

Greeley,  who  had  vision,  yearned  for  leadership.  The 
issues  that  had  gone  to  make  the  Whig  party  strong  were 
issues  that  he  had  made.  Whatever  feeling  he  may  have 
had  about  Raymond  personally,  there  is  no  question  but 
that  he  resented  the  growing  importance  of  his  former 
associate,  and  the  fact  that  it  was  toward  him  (Raymond) 
•  First  Blows  of  the  Civil  War,  237 


288  HISTORY  OF  JOURNALISM 

that  Weed  and  Seward  were  more  and  more  inclined  to 
lean.  He  harbored  the  idea  that  this  was  the  time  for  him 
to  present  himself  as  a  candidate  for  governor. 

In  addition  to  the  Nebraska  question,  the  one  absorbing 
topic  before  the  people  of  the  State  of  New  York  at  that 
time  was  prohibition.  An  anti-liquor  wave  had  swept 
over  the  country  and  the  Prohibitionists  were  popular. 
Greeley  had  been  ardent  in  the  cause  and  had,  to  a  large 
extent,  fought  its  battles;  this  was  to  him  an  additional 
reason  for  believing  that  the  time  had  come  for  him  to 
run  for  office.  To  Weed,  therefore,  as  the  acknowledged 
boss  of  the  Whig  party  in  New  York  State,  went  Greeley, 
and  there  is  very  little  doubt  that  there  was  also  in  his 
mind  a  determination  to  find  out  exactly  what  his  own  po- 
sition was  in  the  "  firm,"  that  had  been  known  as  the 
Weed-Seward-Greeley  partnership. 

Nowhere  in  the  history  of  American  politics  is  there  a 
more  lamentable  exhibition  of  the  weakness  of  the  sys- 
tem that  had  grown  up,  the  system  of  which  Weed  was 
the  chief  exponent,  than  the  following  account  of  the 
interview,  taken  from  Weed's  reminiscences : 

"  Mr.  Greeley  called  upon  me  at  the  Astor  House  and 
asked  if  I  did  not  think  that  the  time  and  circumstances 
were  favorable  to  his  nomination  for  Governor.  I  replied 
that  I  did  think  the  time  and  circumstances  favorable  to 
his  election,  if  nominated,  but  that  my  friends  had  lost 
control  of  the  state  convention.  This  answer  perplexed 
him,  but  a  few  words  of  explanation  made  it  clear.  Ad- 
mitting that  he  had  brought  the  people  up  to  the  point  of 
accepting  a  temperance  candidate  for  Governor,  I  re- 
marked that  another  aspirant  had  '  stolen  his  thunder.* 
In  other  words,  while  he  had  shaken  the  temperance  bush, 
Myron  H.  Clark  would  catch  the  bird.  ...  I  informed 
Mr.  Greeley  that  Know-Nothing  or  *  Choctaw '  lodges 


THE  TIMES  AND  GREELEY'S  TRIUMPH        289 

had  been  secretly  organized  throughout  the  state,  by  means 
of  which  many  delegates  for  Mr.  Clark  had  been  secured. 
Mr.  Greeley  saw  that  the  '  slate  '  had  been  broken,  and 
cheerfully  relinquished  the  idea  of  being  nominated. 
But  a  few  days  afterward  Mr.  Greeley  came  to  Albany, 
and  said  in  an  abrupt,  but  not  unfriendly  way,  '  Is  there 
any  objection  to  my  running  for  Lieutenant-Governor? ' 
.  .  .  After  a  little  more  conversation,  Mr.  Greeley  be- 
came entirely  satisfied  that  a  nomination  for  Lieutenant- 
Governor  was  not  desirable  and  left  me  in  good  spirits."  ^ 

Weed  was  either  very  stupid  or  very  canny  when 
he  assumed  that  Greeley  left  him  in  good  spirits ;  he  had 
insulted  the  man  as  far  as  was  possible, —  short  of  actu- 
ally throwing  him  out  of  the  room, —  for  he  had  practi- 
cally informed  him  that  there  was  no  place  for  him  any- 
w^here  on  the  state  ticket  as  long  as  Weed  controlled  the 
machine.  In  addition  to  this,  his  excuses  were  of  the 
most  superficial  and  insulting  kind. 

Myron  H.  Clark,  the  man  selected  in  place  of  Greeley, 
was  a  fanatic  of  very  slender  attainments,  originally  a 
cabinet-maker.  He  had  introduced  an  anti-liquor  bill, 
passed  it  through  the  legislature,  and  was  made  a  state 
hero  by  Governor  Horatio  Seymour's  veto.  While  he 
was  well  liked,  his  popularity  was  not  so  great  that 
Weed  could  not  have  beaten  him  had  he  so  wished.  To 
make  matters  worse,  the  convention  nominated  Raymond 
for  lieutenant-governor, —  *'  No  other  name  could  have 
been  put  on  the  ticket  so  bitterly  humbling  to  me,"  Greeley 
admitted  afterward  in  a  letter  to  Seward.  It  was  an 
unnecessary  humiliation,  although  Weed  insisted  that  the 
convention  had  acted  on  its  own  responsibility  and  that  he 
had  never  thought  of  Raymond  until  his  name  had  been 
suggested  by  others.     It  was  also  a  fatal  error,  for  then 

*  Life  of  Thurlow  Weed,  ii,  225. 


290  HISTORY  OF  JOURNALISM 

began  Greeley's  quarrel  with  the  other  melnbers  of  the 
triumvirate  and,  in  a  letter  to  Seward,  he  withdrew  from 
the  partnership.  It  was  this  quarrel  that  culminated  in 
the  defeat  of  Seward  in  the  Chicago  Republican  Con- 
vention in  i860. 

Greeley's  letter  to  Seward,  which  did  not  come  to  light 
until  years  later,  shows  a  rather  pathetic  willingness  to 
have  taken  a  minor  place  in  the  triumvirate.  It  reveals 
that  his  more  practical  and  hard-headed  associates  had 
grown  very  tired  of  this  crank  reformer,  with  his  fanati- 
cal ideas.  It  is  pathetic  in  the  fact  that  it  shows  how 
Greeley, —  the  man  who  was  then  probably  the  greatest 
journalist  in  the  country, —  was  destined  to  break  himself 
on  the  rock  of  political  ambition. 

This  letter  was  written  immediately  after  the  election, 
in  which  he  loyally  supported  the  unimportant  Clark,  who 
was  successful.  Greeley  recited  with  great  pains  how 
he  had  assisted  both  Seward  and  Weed;  how  they  had 
both  advanced  politically  and  how,  when  he  had  sug- 
gested that  he  be  nominated  for  lieutenant-governor  (he 
denied  that  he  had  asked  for  the  governorship),  he  had 
been  humiliated  by  Weed's  refusal."^ 

The  nomination  of  Raymond,  he  frankly  said,  was 
more  than  he  could  bear,  and  he  thus  concluded  this  re- 
markable letter: 

"  Governor  Seward,  I  know  that  some  of  your  most 
cherished  friends  think  me  a  great  obstacle  to  your  ad- 
vancement —  that  John  Schoolcraft,  for  one,  insists  that 
you  and  Weed  shall  not  be  identified  with  me.  I  trust, 
after  a  time,  you  will  not  be.  I  trust  I^-sliall  never  be 
found  in  opposition  to  you;  I  have  no  further  wish  but 
to  glide  out  of  the  newspaper  world  as  quietly  and  as 
speedily  as  possible,  join  my  family  in  Europe,  and,  if 
^  Sec  Appendix,  Note  D. 


THE  TIMES  AND  GREELEY'S  TRIUMPH       291 

possible,  stay  there  quite  a  time, —  long  enough  to  cool 
my  fevered  brain  and  renovate  my  overtasked  energies. 
All  I  ask  is  that  we  shall  be  counted  even  on  the  morning 
after  the  first  Tuesday  in  February,  as  aforesaid,  and 
that  I  may  thereafter  take  such  course  as  seems  best  with- 
out reference  to  the  past."  ^ 

Seward's  inability  to  see  the  political  mistake  that  had 
been  made  is  shown  by  the  off-hand  manner  with  which, 
in  a  note  to  Weed,  he  refers  to  this  extraordinary  letter, 
suggests  that  something  be  done  for  poor  Greeley  and 
asks  if  there  is  a  place  on  the  Board  of  Regents  that 
could  be  made  for  him,  as  if  history  could  be  patched  up 
with  a  place  on  the  Board  of  Regents! 

In  the  new  Republican  party  that  was  formed  Greeley 
had,  over  Seward  and  Weed,  the  advantage  that  he  had 
been  an  ardent  believer  in  the  movement,  and  had  been  in 
frequent  consultation  with,  and  had  greatly  encouraged 
those  who  were  for  the  new  party,  and  was  said  to  have 
been  the  one  who  suggested  the  name,  ''  Republican."  ^ 
On  the  other  hand,  Seward  and  Weed  had  never  given 
the  Republican  movement,  in  the  West  and  in  New  Eng- 
land, a  word  of  encouragement  in  1854, —  a  mistake  that 
cost  them  dearly  before  many  years  had  passed. 

When  Seward  made  his  great  speech  favoring  the  im- 
mediate admission  of  Kansas,  and  defending  the  settlers 
in  maintaining  their  struggle  for  admission  as  a  free 
state,  Greeley  enthusiastically  endorsed  it  as  ''  unsur- 
passed in  its  political  philosophy."  The  day  that  it  was 
printed  in  the  weekly  Tribune,  the  circulation  rose  to 
162,000  copies. 

It  was  this  friendliness  on  Greeley's  part  when  he  and 
they  were  at  one  on  a  matter  of  principle,  that  led  Seward 

8  Busy  Life,  320. 
*  Alexander,  ii,  216. 


292  HISTORY  OF  JOURNALISM 

and  Weed  to  underestimate  the  extent  of  the  hurt  they 
had  done  Greeley.  They  might  have  reaHzed  that  the  ex- 
partner  was  not  inactive  in  the  convention  of  1856,  which 
nominated  Fremont  and  —  although  he  was  most  anxious 
to  be  nominated,  even  against  the  advice  of  his  friend 
Weed  —  passed  Seward  completely  over.  Weed  believed 
that  it  was  impossible  to  elect  the  Republican  candidate  in 
1856,  and  for  that  reason  did  not  support  Seward,  wish- 
ing to  save  him  for  i860;  by  that  time,  he  believed,  the 
Republican  party  would  be  strong  enough  to  elect  its  can- 
didate. Greeley  "  sided  "  with  Weed  in  this  sage  view 
of  the  situation.     It  was  Borgian  unanimity. 

Two  years  later  the  debates  in  Illinois  between  Stephen 
A.  Douglas, —  whose  theory  of  popular  sovereignty  had 
appealed  not  only  to  northern  Democrats  but  to  many 
northern  Republicans, —  and  Abraham  Lincoln,  an  un- 
known Republican  "  politician,"  brought  to  the  front  the 
man  who  was  to  solve  the  questions  of  this  grave  period. 
It  was  during  these  debates  that  Lincoln  had  declared 
that  "  a  house  divided  against  itself  cannot  stand."  Sev- 
eral months  later  Seward,  in  his  Rochester  speech, 
summed  up  the  impending  clash  as  *'  an  irrepressible  con- 
flict between  opposing  and  enduring  forces,  and  it  means 
that  the  United  States  must  and  will,  sooner  or  later,  be- 
come either  entirely  a  slave-holding  nation,  or  entirely  a 
free  labor  nation."  Both  of  these  statements  arrived  at 
the  same  point  at  practically  the  same  time  and  Seward, 
with  his  greater  reputation,  was  given  the  credit  of  having 
antedated  Lincoln. 

Bennett,  who  had  remained  Democratic  and  around 
whom  an  agitation  had  developed  without  any  apparent 
disturbance  of  his  own  self-satisfaction,  denounced  Sew- 
ward  as  a  more  dangerous  person  than  Beecher  or  Garri- 
son, declaring  that  no  conflict  existed,  except  the  one 


THE  TIMES  AND  GREELEY'S  TRIUMPH       293 

Seward  was  fermenting.  Even  Samuel  Bowles,  in  the 
Springfield  Republican,  thought  that  Seward  had  made 
a  mistake,  but  Greeley  saw  and  declared  that  the  position 
was  "  calm,  sagacious,  profound  and  impregnable,  show- 
ing a  masterly  comprehension  of  the  present  aspect  and 
future  prospects  of  the  great  question  which  now  en- 
grosses our  politics."  ^^  Seward's  speech  was  a  bid  for 
the  Presidency.  James  Watson  Webb,  in  the  Courier  and 
Enquirer,  declared  that  it  settled  the  question  of  Seward's 
nomination. 

Lincoln,  however,  was  moving  up  on  him.  He  came 
to  New  York  in  i860,  and  was  introduced  to  his  audience 
at  a  meeting  over  which  William  Cullen  Bryant  presided. 
Although  Bryant  and  Weed  had  both  met  Lincoln  years 
before,  neither  of  them  could  recall  him.  Greeley's 
enthusiasm  for  Lincoln's  address  in  Cooper  Union  was 
unbounded.  'MHe  is  one  of  nature's  orators,"  the 
Tribune  declared.  ^^  To  add  to  the  increasingly  favor- 
able impression  that  Lincoln  was  making,  Seward,  in  a 
speech  before  the  Senate,  showed  a  weakening  in  his 
position,  leading  Wendell  Phillips  to  declare,  in  the  Liber- 
ator, that  he  was  phrasing  his  speech  to  suit  Wall  Street. 

W'hen  the  Republican  Convention  met  in  Chicago  in 
i860,  Seward  was  the  leading  candidate  and  the  Eastern 
politicians  assumed  that  he  would  be  nominated.  Sur- 
rounded by  the  strongest  men  of  New  York,  Weed  at- 
tended, confident  and  arrogant,  to  direct  the  victory.  He 
had  not  included  Greeley  in  his  list  of  delegates,  but 
Greeley, —  holding  a  proxy  from  far-off  Oregon, —  was 
just  as  busy,  if  not  so  confident  or  so  arrogant,  as  Weed. 

What  was  more  important,  the  West  knew  him,  knew 
him  favorably  and  believed  that  his  analysis  of  Seward's 

10  New  York  Tribune,  October  27,  1858. 

11  Ibid,  March  i,  i860. 


294  HISTORY  OF  JOURNALISM 

character  revealed  the  true  weakness  of  Weed's  candi- 
date. In  this  way  he  did  more  to  defeat  Seward's  can- 
didacy than  did  any  other  man  in  the  country. 

Both  Seward  and  Weed  insisted  that  Greeley  had  given 
them  to  understand  that  he  was  supporting  the  former. 
The  failure  of  both  men  to  appreciate  Greeley's  position, 
however,  is  as  evident  as  their  failure  to  appreciate  the 
fact  that  the  Western  Republicans,  admire  Seward  though 
they  did,  were  unable  to  countenance  his  political  methods 
and  his  close  association  with  Thurlow  Weed.  William 
Cullen  Bryant  declared  that  what  injured  Seward  as  much 
as  anything  else  was  the  "  project  of  Thurlow  Weed  to 
give  charters  for  a  set  of  city  railways,  for  which  those 
who  received  them  are  to  furnish  a  fund  of  from  four  to 
six  hundred  thousand  dollars  to  be  expended  for  the  Re- 
publican cause  in  the  next  presidential  election."  ^^ 

Another  witness  tells  us  that  Weed  took  an  Indiana 
politician  aside,  and  ''  pleaded  with  him  to  turn  the  In- 
diana delegation  over  to  Seward,  saying  that  they  would 
send  enough  money  from  New  York  to  insure  his  elec- 
tion for  Governor,  and  carry  the  state  later  for  the  New 
York  candidate."  ^^ 

It  was  a  moneyed  convention,  if  we  are  to  believe 
Greeley's  statements,  and  there  is  every  indication  that 
they  are  true;  but  the  West  was  firm  and,  when  it  was 
over,  Lincoln  had  been  nominated.  A  Western  poli- 
tician was  able  to  write,  "  Greeley  slaughtered  Seward, 
and  saved  the  party.  He  deserves  the  praises  of  all  men 
and  gets  them  now.  Wherever  he  goes  he  is  greeted  with 
cheers."  -^^ 

12  Godwin,  Life  of  Bryant,  ii,  127. 

13  A.  K,  McClure,  Lincoln  and  Men  of  War  Times,  25. 
1*  Hollister,  Life  of  Schuyler  Colfax,  148. 


CHAPTER  XXII 

THE  AUTOCRACY  OF  THE  SLAVEHOLDERS 

Backwardness  of  Southern  press  —  First  abolition  movement  at 
South  —  Effect  of  arrogance  of  slave-holders  —  Government 
without  newspapers  —  Reasons  for  attitude  of  "  poor  whites  " 
—  South  commercially  outstripped  —  Northern  papers  stead- 
ily improved  —  Contrast  between  sections  shown  by  press  — 
"Honor"  —  Exemplified  by  Jennings  Wise  —  Robert  Barn- 
well Rhett  —  Charleston  Mercury  —  Suggested  resumption  of 
slave  importation  —  George  D.  Prentice. 

We  have  followed  thus  far  the  development  of  journal- 
ism and  its  influence  on  democracy  in  the  United  States, 
but  it  has  been  to  a  large  extent  a  story  of  the  North  and 
West.  What  was  the  progress  at  the  South,  where,  with 
the  literary  inclinations  of  a  wealthy  leisure  class,  there 
was  certain  to  be  interest  in  a  political  press?  How  far 
did  the  ideas  of  the  slaveholders  affect  the  journalism  of 
that  section,  and  what  were  the  processes  that  led  to  so 
sharp  a  division?  These  questions  are  important,  espe- 
cially when  we  consider  that  from  the  leading  southern 
state,  Virginia,  came  the  democratic  ideas  that  were  to 
rule  the  country.  The  ideas  of  Thomas  Jefferson,  as 
we  have  seen,  eventually  dominated  the  Republic,  and  it 
was  as  a  result  of  these  democratic  ideas  that  there  sprang 
up  a  great  democratic  cheap  press.  The  anomaly  is  that 
the  section  of  the  country  in  which  it  might  be  assumed 
that  Jefferson  had  the  greatest  influence  was  the  one 
that  lagged  farthest  behind,  in  the  development  of  both 
journalism  and  democracy. 

The  cause  of  this  backwardness  was  the  development 

295 


296  HISTORY  OF  JOURNALISM 

of  slavery  as  an  economic  factor  in  the  SoiftH,  following 
the  invention  of  the  cotton-gin.  The  South  believed  that, 
through  the  growth  of  the  cotton  industry,  it  was  to  be 
the  wealthy  section  of  the  country;  the  cotton-gin  made 
the  use  of  slave  labor  imperative. 

Up  to  the  time  that  Whitney  invented  the  cotton-gin, 
there  was  not,  even  in  the  South,  a  strong  pro-slavery 
sentiment;  in  fact,  in  the  early  part  of  the  century  there 
was  a  great  abolition  sentiment  in  the  South.  Washing- 
ton had,  on  his  death,  freed  his  slaves,  and  some  of  the 
most  distinguished  statesmen  of  that  region,  although 
they  held  slaves,  believed  that  at  some  time  or  another 
slavery  would  be  abolished. 

Jefferson  had,  in  his  original  draft  of  the  Declaration 
of  Independence,,  a  clause  condemning  slavery.  It  was 
omitted,  however,  because  ijt  was  thought  that  such  a 
clause  might  give  offense  to  those  in  the  North  who  had 
been  engaged  in  the  slave-traffic.  Years  afterward,  this 
reproach  came  back  to  plague  the  abolitionists  of  the 
North,  for  the  truth  was  that  there  were,  at  the  North, 
as  many  who  were  willing  to  make  profit  out  of  the 
slaves  as  there  originally  were  in  the  South.  Even  after 
the  agitation  against  slavery  had  been  fully  launched, 
merchants  of  the  North  who  had  profitable  business  re- 
lations with  the  cotton  states  were  opposed  to  all  conten- 
tion that  might  interfere  with  their  profits. 

As  we  have  seen,  it  was  in  the  slave  states  that  the 
abolition  feeling  first  developed,  but  we  have  also  seen 
that  that  feeling  was  very  quickly  put  down.  This  sup- 
pression, together  with  the  fact  that  the  South  had  come 
under  the  domination  of  an  autocracy  that  brooked  no 
public  discussion,  except  within  lines  of  its  own  setting, 
was  the  reason  for  the  minor  place  in  journalism  occupied 
by  the  southern  papers. 


THE  AUTOCRACY  OF  THE  SLAVEHOLDERS      297 

The  first  abolition  newspapers  were  started  in  the  South 
and  the  iDitterest  speeches  against  slavery  were  made 
there.  But  the  movement  was  driven  out  and  driven 
North  by  the  slave-holding  class,  who,  although  in  the 
minority,  represented  the  material  wealth  of  the  country 
and  were,  under  the  social,  political  and  economic  con- 
ditions which  they  had  fostered,  the  sole  representatives 
of  public  opinion.  In  those  early  days  when  abolition 
papers  were  being  started  in  the  South,  it  was  a  battle 
of  principle  against  interest,  of  ideas  against  force. 

But  there  can  be  no  idealists,  no  great  editors  or 
journals,  where  brute  force  and  material  wealth  so  com- 
pletely control,  and  the  result  was  that  the  southern  men 
of  idealism  were  ignored  in  their  own  communities,  or  that 
they  went  North. 

Making  due  allowances  for  population,  it  is  interest- 
ing to  compare  the  newspaper  growth  in  the  free  soil 
states, —  Ohio,  Indiana  or  Illinois,  for  example, —  with 
that  of  Louisiana,  in  which  there  had  been,  since  before 
the  beginning  of  the  nineteenth  century,  a  prosperous  city. 
Even  while  Louisiana  was  a  French  colony.  New  Orleans 
had  supported  a  paper;  its  -first  English  paper,  however, 
was  not  published  until  1804.  But  in  1828  there  were 
only  nine  papers  in  Louisiana,  while  Ohio  had  sixty-six, 
Indiana  seventeen  and  even  Illinois  could  boast  of  four. 

In  18 10  Ohio  showed  fourteen  papers,  as  compared 
with  Louisiana's  ten,  but  in  the  period  from  18 10  to 
1828,  Ohio  gained  no  less  than  fifty-two,  while  Louisiana 
actually  shows  a  loss  of  one  paper.  In  1840  the  figures 
were :  Ohio,  one  hundred  twenty-three,  Indiana,  seventy- 
three,  Illinois,  forty-three,  Louisiana,  thirty-four. 

There  may  have  been  many  reasons  for  this ;  the  chief 
one  undoubtedly  was  that,  where  men  are  not  free  to  dis- 
cuss questions  without  endangering  their  lives,  and  where 


298  HISTORY  OF  JOURNALISM 

a  small  oligarchy,  such  as  the  slaveholders  constituted, 
is  in  the  ascendant  and  is  the  political  power,  a  strong 
journalistic  spirit  cannot  be  developed.  Had  there  been 
men  in  the  South  of  the  temper  of  old  Ben  Harris,  or 
Zenger,  or  Sam  Adams,  there  would  have  been  a  different 
story  to  tell.  The  slave-holders  of  the  South  were  never 
so  numerically  strong  that  they  could  not  have  been 
crushed  by  the  South  itself.  ^ 

By  appealing  to  the  other  white  inhabitants  on  the 
ground  of  fear  and  race  prejudice,  however,  they  suc- 
ceeded in  crushing  out  whatever  minority  there  might 
have  been.  What  was  more  important,  they  drove  to 
the  North  the  very  men  that  they  needed,  men  of  inde- 
pendent judgment,  of  the  type  of  Edward  Coles,  second 
Governor  of  Illinois, —  a  slave-holder  in  Virginia  who 
left  that  state  in  order  that  he  might  liberate  his  slaves. 
More  important  still,  they  discouraged  those  restless 
spirits  who  sought  better  conditions  in  life,  and  who,  as 
emigrants,  took  into  undeveloped  territory  a  vigor  and  a 
freshness  that  made  for  liberty  of  discussion  and  democ- 
racy, the  very  life  of  Americanism. 

This  side  of  the  Southern  question  still  remains  to  be 
explained  —  preferably,  one  would  think,  by  a  student  of 
Southern  sympathies,  broad  enough  to  understand  that 
the  sentiment  in  the  North  was  an  inevitable  political- 
sociological  development.  That  the  sentiment  in  the 
South  was  also  inevitable,  one  is  forced  to  believe  when 
one  finds  such  exponents  of  it  as  Governor  Henry  A. 
Wise,  who  declared  that  he  was  thankful  there  were  few 
papers  in  Virginia, —  almost  a  paraphrase  of  the  state- 
ment of  Governor  Berkeley  of  Virginia  in  1671,  when 
he  thanked  God  that  "  we  have  no  free  schools  nor  print- 
ing,—  God  keep  us  from  both." 

^See  Appendix,  Note  E. 


THE  AUTOCRACY  OF  THE  SLAVEHOLDERS      299 

The  astounding  thing  is  that  this  was  supposed  to  be 
the  sentiment  of  the  state  that  gave  to  the  world  Jeffer- 
son, whose  behef  was  that  he  would  rather  live  in  a  land 
where  there  were  newspapers  and  no  government  than 
in  one  where  there  was  a  government,  but  no  news- 
papers. 

What  happened  in  the  South  was  exactly  what  Jeffer- 
son considered  the  undesirable  alternative,  a  government 
without  newspapers, —  that  is,  newspapers  as  the  North 
knew  them  and  in  the  proportion  and  relation  to  the  peo- 
ple that  the  North  had  them.  The  number  of  white 
illiterates  in  the  South  was  one  of  the  results  of  a  lack  of 
democracy;  it  was  also  one  of  the  causes.  Journalism 
would  have  helped  to  cure  this  condition,  paradox  though 
that  may  seem.  In  recent  times  the  success  of  a  clever 
journalist, —  Arthur  Brisbane,  editor  of  the  New  York 
Evening  Journal, —  has  been  due,  in  great  measure, 
to  the  fact  that  he  printed  a  certain  section  of  his  paper 
in  type  large  enough  to  be  read  by  many  who  could  almost 
be  classed  as  illiterates. 

The  people  who  eventually  aroused  the  North  were 
not  the  so-called  aristocrats,  not  people  of  the  type  of 
Philip  Hone,  who  suffered  a  nervous  shock  when  he  saw 
a  Herald  reporter  enter  Mrs.  Brevoort's  exclusive  ball- 
room. It  was  the  class  of  people  who  corresponded  to 
the  illiterates  of  the  South  who  became  a  vital,  moving 
power  under  the  stimulation  of  free  discussion;  whose 
susceptibility  to  ideas  and  sensitiveness  to  moral  condi- 
tions acted  on  northern  journalism  even  when  its  be- 
ginnings were  of  the  basest  and  most  sordid  description. 
These  people,  the  "  plain  people,"  evolved  their  own 
leaders  and  champions, —  Lincoln,  Greeley,  Samuel 
Bowles  of  the  Springfield  Republican,  William  Lloyd 
Garrison, —  whereas  the  same  class  at  the  South  remained 


300  HISTORY  OF  JOURNALISM 

an  inert  mass,  responsive  only  to  the  virtual  command  of 
the  so-called  better-class  whites. 

How  thoroughly  the  **  poor  whites "  were  in  the 
hands  of  their  superiors  is  shown  by  the  statement  of  a 
modern  student  of  the  South  as  to  the  reason  why  this 
particular  class  fought  so  valiantly  for  the  Confederacy : 

"  An  acute  observer,  a  Confederate  veteran,  once  said 
to  me,  *  When  I  was  serving  in  the  Army  of  Northern 
Virginia,  I  took  great  interest  in  finding  out  why  moun- 
taineers and  poor  whites,  men  who  had  never  owned  a 
slave,  men  who  had  no  interest  in  slavery,  were  as  keen 
for  the  war  as  any  of  us.  I  concluded  that  it  was  a  war 
of  caste.  Rightly  or  wrongly,  they  had  the  notion  that, 
if  the  North  won,  they  would  be  reduced  to  the  level  of 
the  negro.  They  were  animated  by  an  intense  racial  feel- 
ing.    They  fought  for  the  racial  idea.'  "  ^ 

In  this  connection  it  is  well  to  recall  that  slavery  was 
never  formally  established  by  statute  in  any  of  the  south- 
ern states.  It  was  a  "  tolerated  anomaly."  Had  an 
effort  been  made  to  pass  such  statutes,  there  is  no  telling 
what  the  efifect  might  have  been  on  these  lethargic  "  poor 
whites  " ;  it  might  have  stirred  them  to  realization  that 
their  own  condition,  in  a  community  where  they  had  so 
little  political  power,  was  not  too  secure. 

We  must  not  be  led  into  the  error  of  thinking  that 
there  was,  in  the  beginning,  any  difference  in  ability  be- 
tween the  journalists  at  the  North  and  those  of  the  South. 

A  southern  critic  of  the  South,  Hinton  Rowan  Helper, 
insisted  that  there  were  able  journalists  there,  and  that 
it  was  the  lack  of  enterprise  and  the  lack  of  freedom  which 
made  them  seem  inferior  to  their  brethren  at  the  North. 
At  this  day,  looking  calmly  back  over  this  turbulent 
period,   we  can   realize   how   true   this   statement   was. 

2  N.  W.  Stephenson,  Atlantic  Monthly,  June,  1919. 


THE  AUTOCRACY  OF  THE  SLAVEHOLDERS   301 

What  is  more,  for  the  men  who  were  fighting  the  bat- 
tles of  the  slave  power,  slavery  had  little  real  influence, 
and  that  influence  was  unquestionably  deadened  by  the 
fact  that  the  very  breath  of  the  institution  of  journalism 
was  freedom.  Their  bitter  denunciations  of  those  north- 
ern politicians  and  fanatical  abolitionists, —  who  wished, 
they  declared,  to  rob  them  of  their  property, —  concealed 
in  many  a  case  the  heavy  sense  of  impending  doom. 

Although  the  South  claimed  to  be  wealthier  than  the 
North,  its  people  were  fast  being  confronted  on  all  sides 
with  evidences  that,  commercially,  the  North  was  leav- 
ing them  far  behind.  Little  as  the  local  southern  editors 
wished  to  call  attention  to  this  fact,  they  were  frequently 
obliged  to  do  so,  in  order  to  stir  their  constituents.  In 
the  early  fifties  the  Whig,  of  Vicksburg,  Mississippi, 
complained  that  the  Mississippi  Legislature  had  been 
obliged,  not  only  to  send  its  session  laws  to  Boston  to  be 
printed,  but  to  appropriate  $3,000  to  pay  one  of  its  mem- 
bers to  go  there  and  read  proofs.  "  What  a  com- 
mentary on  the  Yankee-hater !  "  —  A  little  later,  the 
Greensboro'  Patriot  criticized  the  legislature  of  North 
Carolina  for  doing  the  same  thing,  adding,  "  It  is  a  little 
humiliating  that  no  work  except  the  commonest  labor 
can  be  done  in  North  Carolina;  that  everything  which 
requires  a  little  skill,  capital,  or  ingenuity,  must  be  sent 
North."  3 

For  twenty  years  preceding  the  war,  the  fact  was  evi- 
dent that  the  northern  papers  were  steadily  becoming 
more  comprehensive  in  their  scope  and  more  complete 
in  every  department,  and  that  they  were  enlisting  more 
talent  than  were  those  at  the  South.  It  was  the  com- 
plaint of  the  southerner.  Helper,  that  "  the  very  highest 
literary  ability  in  finances,  in  political  economy,  in  science, 

3  Helper,  The  Impending  Crisis,  391. 


302  HISTORY  OF  JOURNALISM 

in  statism,  in  law,  in  theology,  in  medicine,-  in  the  belles- 
lettres,  is  laid  under  contribution  by  the  journals  of  the 
non-slave-holding  states."  Certainly,  the  same  could  not 
be  said  of  the  southern  journals.  ^ 

It  was  stated  in  1850,  undoubtedly  with  truth,  that  the 
press  of  the  South,  taken  as  a  whole,  was  about  twenty 
years  behind  that  of  the  North,  and  that,  while  it  was 
exceptional  at  the  North  to  find  a  newspaper  or  magazine 
that  had  not  improved  during  the  decade  from  1840  to 
1850,  in  the  South  the  reverse  held  true.^ 

This  book,  Helper's  Impending  Crisis,  was  indeed  an 
anomaly,  for  its  thesis  was  that  slavery  depressed  the 
poor  whites  and  enabled  the  slave-owners  to  profit  at 
their  expense;  but  it  was  unsuccessful  as  an  attempt  to 
arouse  the  non-slave-holding  whites.^ 

For  twenty  years  or  more  the  wide  difference  between 
the  two  sections  of  the  country  showed  itself  more  openly 
in  the  newspapers  and  journals  than  in  any  other  way. 
The  assumption  on  the  part  of  southerners  that  their  peo- 
ple were  descendants  of  the  Cavaliers,  while  those  of  the 
north  represented  the  socially  inferior  Roundheads,  re- 
sulted, once  the  cleavage  began,  in  a  sharpness  of  treat- 
ment of  each  by  the  other.  The  lack  of  ambition,  lack 
of  mobility,  and  the  very  sensitive  "  honor,"  so  charac- 
teristic of  the  Southerner,  made  it  more  and  more  im- 
possible for  the  man  at  the  North  to  understand  his 
Southern  brother,  especially  when,  to  avenge  his  honor, 
the  Southerner  was  obliged  to  employ  personal  violence, 
as  in  the  case  of  Brooks  and  Sumner. 

This  class  "  honor  "  was  at  the  very  base  of  tHe  dif- 
ference between  the  two  sections;  it  made  the  Southern 

^Impending  Crisis,  387, 
^  See  Appendix,  Note  F. 
®  T.  C.  Smith,  Parties  and  Slavery,  288. 


THE  AUTOCRACY  OF  THE  SLAVEHOLDERS 


303 


editor  and  thinker,  who  was  a  victim  to  it,  unable  to  ap- 
preciate the  truth  of  either  Turgot's  conception  of  prog- 
ress or  the  immorahty  of  slavery. 

In  jfifty  years  there  had  been  no  change  in  the  attitude 
of  mind  of  the  people  south  of  the  Mason  and  Dixon 
line,  with  the  result  that  society  was  encrusted  with  a 
leadership,  social  and  political,  through  which  it  was 
impossible  for  either  an  individual  or  an  idea  to  break. 
The  election  to  the  Governorship  of  his  state  and  to 
the  United  States  Senate  of  such  a  man  as  Andrew  John- 
son, a  really  illiterate  tailor,  was  a  great  exception;  we 
have  seen  in  the  cases  of  Coles  of  Illinois,  Birney  and 
others  how,  the  moment  men  began  to  think  contrary  to 
the  views  of  the  slave-holding  leadership,  it  became 
necessary  for  them  to  move  north.  It  has  been  pointed 
out  that,  with  all  the  literary  inclination  on  the  part  of 
the  educated  southerners,  only  one  book,  that  of  Helper, 
was  written  to  stimulate  thought  as  to  the  possible  social 
effect  of  slave-holding  on  the  poor  whites. 

An  example  of  the  absurd  lengths  to  which  this  self- 
established  superiority  led  some  of  its  votaries  is  related 
of  young  Jennings  Wise, —  editor  of  the  Richmond  En- 
quirer, and  son  of  the  Wise  who  was  thankful  that  there 
were  few  papers  in  Virginia.  The  young  man  had  had 
unusual  opportunity  for  broadening  of  character,  having 
served  in  the  American  Embassies  at  Paris  and  Berlin, 
but  he  returned  to  Virginia  apparently  more  than  ever 
imbued  with  the  aristocratic  ideas  of  that  section.  He 
was  said  to  be  so  amiable  that  ''  he  never  had  a  personal 
quarrel,"  but  in  two  years  of  his  career  as  the  editor  of 
the  Enquirer,  he  fought  eight  duels  in  defense  of  his 
father,  for  he  thought  it  was  his  duty  to  challenge  anyone 
who  criticized  the  Governor  in  the  slightest  way.  This 
young  man  was  not  only  a  model  of  all  the  virtues,  but 


304  HISTORY  OF  JOURNALISM 

genuinely  religious,  according  to  his  brothef.  Were  such 
characters  the  exception,  they  would  baffle  psychology. 
They  were  not  rare,  however,  and  the  fact  that  they  ap- 
peared in  number  shows  why  it  was  easy  for  this  class 
idea  to  finally  become  a  political  one,  until  there  had  de- 
veloped a  local  patriotism  that  burned  far  more  fiercely 
than  did  the  love  of  the  entire  country,  at  the  North. 

The  chief  exponent  of  that  brand  of  patriotism  was 
Robert  Barnwell  Rhett,  editor  of  the  Charleston  Mer- 
cury, who,  ten  years  before  the  war,  was  an  ardent  advo- 
cate of  secession,  and  who  saw  in  South  Carolina's 
struggle  a  repetition  of  the  story  of  the  Greek  republics. 
"  Smaller  states,"  he  said,  **  have  before  us  struggled 
successfully  for  their  freedom  against  greater  odds." 
Rhett's  paper  was  the  intellectual  voice  of  the  South. 
When  Calhoun  died  in  1852,  it  was  Rhett  who  took  his 
place  in  the  United  States  Senate;  it  was  he  who  wrote 
South  Carolina's  appeal  to  the  other  states  to  secede;"^ 
when  Jefferson  Davis  was  inaugurated  President  of 
the  Confederacy,  it  was  on  the  arm  of  Rhett  that  he 
leaned  when  he  entered  the  hall.  The  testimony  of 
Rhodes  is  paid  to  Rhett,  without  mention  of  his 
name: 

"  Before  the  war,"  he  states,  "  Charleston  was  one  of 
the  most  interesting  cities  of  the  country.  It  was  a 
small  aristocratic  community,  with  an  air  of  refinement 
and  distinction.  The  story  of  Athens  proclaims  that  a 
large  population  is  not  necessary  to  exercise  a  powerful 
influence  on  the  world;  and,  after  the  election  of  Lincoln 
in  i860,  the  40,000  people  of  Charleston,  or  rather  the 
few  patricians  who  controlled  its  fate  and  that  of  South 
Carolina,  attracted  the  attention  of  the  whole  country. 
The  story  of  the  secession  movement  of  November  and 
''Wilson,  Rise  and  Fall  of  the  Slave  Power,  iii,  no. 


THE  AUTOCRACY  OF  THE  SLAVEHOLDERS   305 

December,  i860,  cannot  be  told  with  correctness  and  life, 
without  frequent  references  to  the  Charleston  Mercury 
and  the  Charleston  Courier.  The  Mercury  especially  was 
an  index  of  opinion,  and  so  vivid  is  its  daily  chronicle  of 
events  that  the  historian  is  able  to  put  himself  in  the  place 
of  those  ardent  South  Carolinians  and  understand  their 
point  of  view."  ^ 

Given  a  man  of  Rhett's  temperament,  (his  real  name 
was  Smith,  which  he  changed  to  Rhett  on  entering  Con- 
gress in  1837),  one  can  understand  the  development  of  a 
local  feeling  of  nationality;  one  cannot  grasp  as  easily 
the  reasons  for  the  failure  to  see  where  the  slave  issue 
was  leading.  We  have  shown  that  there  were  those,  here 
and  there,  who  admitted  that  the  South  was  falling  far 
behind  the  North  in  the  things  that  made  for  prog- 
ress, but  it  remained  for  Rhett's  paper, —  though  the 
article  was  signed  by  another  —  to  suggest,  a  few 
years  before  the  war  began,  a  return  to  the  barbarous 
practice  of  slave  importation,  a  relic  of  the  preceding 
century. 

"  There  are  many  minds  among  us,"  said  this  writer, 
'^  firmly  convinced  that  the  Slave  Trade  is  almost  the 
only  possible  measure,  the  last  resource  to  arrest  the  de- 
cline of  the  South  in  the  Union.  They  see  that  it  would 
develop  resources  which  have  slept  for  the  great  want  of 
labor;  that  it  would  increase  the  area  of  cultivation  in  the 
South  six  times  what  it  is  now;  that  it  would  create  a 
demand  for  land  and  raise  its  price,  so  as  to  compensate 
the  planter  for  the  depreciation  of  the  slaves;  that  it 
would  admit  the  poor  white  man  to  the  advantages  of  our 
social  system;  that  it  would  give  him  clearer  interests 
in  the  country  he  loves  now  only  from  simple  patriotism 
that  it  would  strengthen  our  representation  in  Congress, 

s  Historical  Essays,  91,  92. 


3o6  HISTORY  OF  JOURNALISM 

and  that  it  would  revive  and  engender  public  spirit  in 
the  South."  9 

But  there  was  one  southern  editor  and  one  southern 
journal  that  maintained  independence,  and  that  was 
George  D.  Prentice  and  his  Louisville  Journal.  It  was 
said  of  Prentice  that  "  he  built  the  city  of  Louisville,"  ^^ 
and  to  him  is  also  given  the  credit  of  ''  preventing  the 
secession  of  Kentucky." 

Henry  Watterson,  his  distinguished  successor,  says  that 
"  from  1830  to  1 86 1  the  influence  of  Prentice  was  per- 
haps greater  than  the  influence  of  any  political  writer 
who  ever  lived."  Prentice  was  a  Connecticut  Yankee, 
who  could  shoot  as  well  as  write,  and  when  he  established 
himself  in  Louisville,  he  identified  himself  at  once  as  a 
man  ready  and  willing  to  fight.  His  course  after  that 
was  smoother. 

When  Fort  Sumter  was  fired  upon.  Prentice  wavered, 
and  his  '*  indecision  was  fatal  to  his  national  influence. 
He  opposed  the  Rebellion  but  not  for  radical  reasons  and 
not  with  zeal."  ^^  Behind  the  arras,  even  here,  there  was 
tragedy.  Prentice  fought  to  keep  Kentucky  in  the 
Union,  he  was  loyal  —  but  both  his  sons,  his  only  chil- 
dren, were  in  the  Confederate  arm.y. 

9  Charleston  Mercury,  February  17,  1857. 
i^Venable,  391. 
11  Ibid,  399. 


CHAPTER  XXIII 

CIVIL  WAR 

The  fourth  estate  in  war  time  —  Lincoln  and  newspapers  — 
Trouble  with  editors  —  Sympathy  for  South  —  Attack  on 
Fort  Sumter  arouses  Northern  papers  —  Greeley  ignored  — 
"Forward  to  Richmond" — Bull  Run  —  Factional  differences 
at  North  —  Malignant  papers  excluded  from  mails  —  ''  Prayer 
of  Twenty  Millions  " —  Joseph  Medill's  antagonism  to  Seward 
—  Downfall  of  Weed  —  Tribune  office  mobbed  —  Baltimore 
convention  —  Two  papers  suspended  —  High  office  promised 
to  Greeley. 

That  journalism  may  make  war  was  the  opinion  of  no 
less  an  expert  on  the  latter  than  Bismarck,  who  declared, 
in  1877,  that  the  press  was  "  the  cause  of  the  last  three 
wars."  ^  The  Crimean  war  was  credited  to  the  London 
Times,  while  the  Spanish- American  war  has  been  ascribed 
to  the  activities  of  William  Randolph  Hearst.  On  the 
other  hand,  war,  although  it  does  make  news,  cannot  be 
said  to  make  for  journalism  in  its  larger  sense.  In  the 
two  great  American  wars  with  which  journalism  had 
much  to  do,  the  Fourth  Estate  did  not  increase  in  power 
during  the  war;  it  suffered  rather  a  diminution  of  in- 
fluence. Sam  Adams,  who  had  so  much  to  do  with 
the  struggle  leading  to  the  Revolutionary  war,  was  a 
spent  figure  after  it  was  over;  so,  after  the  Civil  war, 
the  men  who  had  cleared  the  ground  for  the  struggle 
gave  way  to  those  who  had  distinguished  themselves  dur- 
ing the  conflict,  particularly  on  the  field  of  battle. 

The  soldier's  belief  that,  in  war,  editors  are  less  im- 

1  Rhodes,  Essays,  89. 

307 


308  HISTORY  OF  JOURNALISM 

portant  than  fighters,  is  appreciated  by  no  .class  of  men 
so  little  as  by  the  editors.  In  a  democracy  the  latter  are 
still  entitled  to  full  freedom  of  expression,  up  to  the  point 
where  they  begin  to  interfere  with  the  waging  of  the 
war  —  the  very  war  which,  as  a  rule,  they  have  been 
largely  instrumental  in  bringing  about.  A  position  sub- 
servient to  the  exigencies  of  the  situation  is  not  easy  for 
them  to  take,  and  we  see,  in  the  story  of  the  Civil  War, 
how  the  very  leaders  of  the  Fourth  Estate  who  brought 
about  the  conditions  that  made  the  war  inevitable  were, 
because  of  the  political  power  they  still  possessed  and  the 
frequency  with  which  elections  came,  a  source  of  em- 
barassment  and  perplexity  to  the  government. 

There  is  no  rule, —  there  can  be  no  rule, —  as  to  the 
degree  of  freedom  to  be  extended  to  the  press  in  time  of 
war,  or  as  to  how  much  it  shall  be  abridged.  In  the 
great  European  war  just  ended,  we  have  seen  Great 
Britain, —  a  country  less  democratic  than  America, — 
through  the  efforts  of  Lord  Northcliffe,  turn  out  its  Prime 
Minister  and  change  its  attitude  toward  the  struggle  in 
which  it  was  engaged.  The  British  form  of  government 
made  that  possible;  there  is  very  little  doubt  that  there 
were  several  times,  in  the  course  of  the  Civil  War,  when 
Lincoln  would  have  been  turned  out,  had  this  country,  in 
the  sixties,  been  under  such  a  Parliamentary  government 
as  England's. 

Giving  due  consideration  to  the  fact  that  Lincoln's  task 
was  that  of  putting  down  a  rebellion,  with  a  North  far 
from  unanimous,  while  the  war  of  Great  Britain  was 
with  another  race,  one  outside  its  borders,  the  wisdom  of 
our  system  seems  to  have  amply  justified  itself.  War 
must  be  waged  by  autocratic  power,  with  only  such  checks 
as  will  keep  those  having  that  power  from  using  it  for 
any  other  purpose  than  waging  war.     It  is  generally  ad- 


CIVIL  WAR  309 

mitted  now  that  the  change  which  Northchffe  brought 
about  in  England  was  a  wise  one,  but  it  is  not  impossible 
to  conceive  of  an  unwise  change.  The  advantage  of 
our  system  was  that,  having  once  committed  to  Lincoln 
the  conduct  of  the  government,  with  the  power  to  wage 
war  in  its  defense,  it  was  not  possible  to  remove  him  ex- 
cept for  actual  malfeasance  in  office, —  rage  as  the  Fourth 
Estate  might,  and  did.  The  value  of  the  checks  that  a 
constitutional  government  puts  on  all  power,  including 
that  of  the  press,  was  never  more  clearly  demonstrated 
or  more  fully  justified. 

,/A  study  of  Lincoln's  relations  with  the  newspapers- 
leaves  one  filled  with  wonder,  as  does  a  study  of  every 
aspect  of  his  career,  at  the  gifts  with  which  nature  had 
endowed  this  great  son  of  American  democracy. 
Whence  came  his  vision?  His  uncanny  overview  of  the 
men  and  problems  about  him  is  one  of  the  mysteries  of 
the  story  of  civilized  man.  There  is  nothing  like  it  in 
history;  indeed,  there  is  nothing  in  history  like  his  calm 
use  of  all  that  was  usable  in  the  new  power  that  had  de- 
veloped since  the  war  of  the  Revolution.  What  was  not 
usable,  what  was  malignant  and  raging  in  the  Fourth 
Estate,  was  calmly  allowed  to  beat  itself  against  the 
rocks. 

The  pity  was  that  mere  political  manipulation  kept 
Lincoln  from  close  and  sympathetic  touch  with  the  great 
journalist  of  his  time  —  Horace  Greeley.  They  should 
have  been  understanding  friends ;  probably,  but  for  Weed, 
they  would  have  been.  They  had  much  in  common,  and 
the  humble  origin  of  both  proves  that  great  men  are  not 
born  and  left  in  the  midst  of  the  wilderness ;  rather  are 
they  born  in  the  wilderness  and  transported  by  seeming 
miracles  to  the  exact  point  where  they  are  needed. 
Lincoln's  troubles  with  the  editors  began  immediately 


3IO  HISTORY  OF  JOURNALISM 

after  his  nomination.  Raymond  and  Weed, —  whose 
futures,  not  only  poHtically  but  as  journaHsts,  were 
wrapped  up  so  closely  with  that  of  Seward, —  suffered 
greatly  in  prestige,  while  the  Tribune  was  given  credit 
for  great  political  sagacity  and  power.  The  result  was 
that  Raymond,  goaded  by  Greeley's  self-satisfaction, 
made  his  famous  attack,  ^  in  which  he  charged  Greeley 
with  having  secretly  betrayed  Seward  while  pretending  to 
be  his  friend.  Neither  Weed  nor  Raymond  would  admit 
that  it  was  the  domination  of  the  former  that  had  ruined 
Seward. 

In  his  answer  to  Raymond,  Greeley  avowed  that  his 
writings  in  the  Tribune  were  sufficient  evidence  of  his 
belief  that  Seward  could  not  be  nominated.  With  refer- 
ence to  his  having  betrayed  the  candidate,  he  called  on 
Seward  to  produce  his  letter  of  six  years  before,  stating 
that  Seward  had  been  showing  this  letter  to  other  people. 
He  asserted  that,  as  he  had  not  kept  a  copy  of  the  letter, 
he  had  a  right  to  have  it  back,  in  order  that  he  might 
publish  it.  Seward  took  his  time  about  complying  with 
Greeley's  request,  but  finally  the  letter  was  turned  over 
to  Thurlow  Weed. 

The  outcome  of  this  bitter  controversy  was  that  Lin- 
coln had,  in  New  York,  a  divided  house.  While  all 
parties  to  the  controversy  were  loyal  in  the  highest  de- 
gree, there  was  such  division  in  the  councils  as  gave  the 
leader  of  his  party  many  anxious  and  disturbing  mo- 
ments. The  secession  of  South  Carolina  found  Lin- 
coln's advisors  hopelessly  at  sea,  and  Greeley  went  so 
far  that  he  declared:  ''If  the  Cotton  States  shall  be- 
come satisfied  that  they  can  do  better  out  of  the  Union 
than  in  it,  we  insist  on  letting  them  go  in  peace.  The 
right  to  secede  may  be  a  revolutionary  one,  but  it  exists 

2  New  York  Times,  May  25,  i860. 


CIVIL  WAR  311 

nevertheless.  When  any  considerable  section  of  our 
Union  shall  deliberately  resolve  to  go  out  we  shall  resist 
all  coercive  measures  designed  to  keep  it  in.  We  hope 
never  to  live  in  a  Republic  where  one  section  is  pinned 
to  the  other  by  bayonets." 

"If  the  Cotton  States,  unitedly  and  earnestly,  wish  to 
withdraw  peacefully  from  the  Union,"  he  said  again,  "  we 
think  they  should  and  would  be  allowed  to  go.  Any  at- 
tempt to  compel  them  by  force  to  remain  would  be  con- 
trary to  the  principles  enunciated  in  the  immortal  Declara- 
tion of  Independence,  contrary  to  the  fundamental  ideas 
on  which  human  liberty  is  based."  ^ 

Giving  strength  to  this  wrong  counsel,  the  Mayor  of 
New  York  City,  Fernando  Wood,  proposed  to  make  New 
York  a  free  city.  An  important  meeting,  at  which  were 
present  John  A.  Dix,  William  B.  Astor,  Charles  O'Con- 
nor and  others,  was  held  for  the  purpose  of  seeing  that 
the  South  was  "  treated  fairly  "  —  further  evidence  of 
what  slender  support  the  new  president  was  receiving 
from  the  city  which  had  had  so  much  to  do  with  his 
nomination  and  election,  and  with  the  issues  that  elected 
him. 

The  newspapers  of  New  York  then  had, —  what  they 
now  have  not, —  an  influence  throughout  the  country ;  an 
influence  which  they  lost  gradually,  as  the  great  western 
cities  began  to  develop  after  the  war.  None  of  them  was 
very  helpful  to  Lincoln  between  his  election  and  his  in- 
auguration; in  fact,  one  day  after  the  fall  of  Fort  Sum- 
ter, the  Sun  prodded  the  Herald  on  its  friendliness  for  the 
South,  and  declared  that  if  its  publisher  had  not  hung 
out  an  American  flag  there  would  not  have  been  another 
issue  of  the  paper.  The  Herald  was  also  charged  with 
having  had  in  its  oflice  a  full  set  of  Confederate  colors, 

3  New  York  Tribune,  November  9th  and  26th,  i860. 


312  HISTORY  OF  JOURNALISM 

"ready  to  fling  to  the  breeze  of  treason^ which  it  and 
the  mayor  hoped  to  raise  in  this  city." 

The  firing  on  Fort  Sumter  brought  a  much-needed 
reahzatlon  of  the  seriousness  of  the  situation,  and  put 
an  end  to  the  sympathy  for  the  Southern  cause.  The 
Southern  papers  viewed  with  bitter  anger  and  disgust  this 
boldness  of  front  on  the  part  of  journals  and  politicians 
formerly  considered  neutral,  if  not  friendly.  The 
Charleston  Mercury  called  the  roll  of  the  statesmen  whom 
the  South  had  counted  friends.  ''  Where,"  it  asked,  "  are 
Fillmore,  Van  Buren,  Cochrane,  McKeon,  Weed,  Dix, 
Dickinson  and  Barnard,  of  New  York,  in  the  bloody  cru- 
sade proposed  by  President  Lincoln  against  the  South? 
Unheard  of  in  their  dignified  retirement,  or  hounding  on 
the  fanatic  warfare,  or  themselves  joining  *  the  noble 
army  of  martyrs  for  liberty  '  marching  on  the  South." 

*'  The  proposition  to  subjugate,"  said  the  Richmond 
Examiner,  "  comes  from  the  metropolis  of  the  North's 
boasted  conservatism,  even  from  the  largest  beneficiary  of 
Southern  wealth  —  New  York  City." 

Meanwhile  Lincoln  had  taken  Seward  into  his  Cabinet, 
and  James  Watson  Webb,  another  bitter  enemy  of  Gree- 
ley, had  been  offered  the  post  of  Minister  to  Constan- 
tinople. Rejecting  that,  he  had  been  made  Ambassador 
to  Brazil.  Greeley  was  left  without  political  recognition, 
and  his  temper  was  such  that  he  could  not  but  be  un- 
happy, especially  considering  that,  only  a  few  months 
before,  he  had  been  proclaimed  as  the  man  who  had 
brought  about  Lincoln's  nomination. 

He  was  indeed  "  a  power  without  the  government," 
left  to  fight  the  struggle  in  his  own  way.  While  his  edi- 
torials in  November  and  December,  i860,  doubtless  had 
much  to  do  with  alienating  Lincoln  from  him,  the  fact 
that  his  bitterest  enemy  stood  between  him  and  the  Presi- 


CIVIL  WAR  313 

dent  was  the  real  hindrance  to  a  better  understanding. 

From  the  very  first,  Greeley  felt  that  things  were  not 
moving  properly  at  the  capital,  and  he  was  not  the  only 
one.  ''  Something  seems  not  right  with  Scott,"  wrote 
Count  Gurowski.  "  Is  he  too  old  or  too  much  of  a  Vir- 
ginian, or  a  hero  on  a  small  scale?  .  .  .  Scott  is  against 
entering  Virginia,  against  taking  Baltimore,  against 
punishing  traitors.     Strange,  strange!  "  ^ 

Greeley's  fear  that  the  war  might  not  be  properly  con- 
ducted by  men  whom  he  disliked  led  to  a  series  of  articles 
calling  for  action.  These  appeals  culminated  in  the 
Tribune's  voicing  what  was  described  as  the  Nation's  war- 
cry  :  "  Forward  to  Richmond !  "  This  appeared  on  June 
2y,  1 86 1,  a  four-line,  triple-leaded  leader,  printed  in  small 
capitals,  entitled  "  The  Nation's  War-Cry. "  It  was  as 
mandatory  as  it  was  conspicuous :  '*  Forward  to  Rich- 
mond! Forw^ard  to  Richmond!  The  Rebel  Congress 
must  not  be  allowed  to  meet  there  on  the  20th  of  July!  " 

It  seemed  strange  that  Greeley,  who  only  a  short  time 
before,  had  shown  so  conciliatory  a  spirit  about  secession, 
should  now  be  so  suspicious  of  others.  *'  Do  you  pretend 
to  know  more  about  military  afYairs  than  General  Scott? 
ask  a  few  knaves,  whom  a  great  many  simpletons  know  no 
better  than  to  echo.  No,  Sirs!  we  know  very  little  of 
the  art  of  war,  and  General  Scott  a  great  deal.  The  real 
question  —  which  the  above  is  asked  only  to  shuffle  out  of 
sight  —  is  this  :  Does  General  Scott  contemplate  the  same 
ends,  and  is  he  animated  by  like  impulses  and  purposes, 
with  the  great  body  of  the  loyal,  liberty-loving  people  of 
this  country  ?  Does  he  want  the  Rebels  routed,  or  would 
he  prefer  to  have  them  conciliated?  "  ^ 

Lincoln  finally  gave  way,  and  ordered  General  Mc- 

*  Gurozvski's  Diary,  i,  35. 
^  Tribune,  July  i,  1861. 


314  HISTORY  OF  JOURNALISM 

Dowell, —  who  had,  in  the  vicinity  of  Bull  Run,  30,000 
men,  of  whom  only  1,600  were  regulars,  however, —  to 
move  forward,  with  the  result  that  the  North  suffered  the 
shock  of  losing  the  first  battle  of  the  Civil  War.  This 
calamity,  however,  was  not  without  its  advantages,  for  it 
aroused  the  free  states  to  the  fact  that  a  stern  conflict 
confronted  them. 

Greeley  paid,  in  many  ways,  for  the  Tribune's  part  in 
bringing  about  the  battle  of  Bull  Run.  James  Gordon 
Bennett  suggested  that  he  be  tried  for  murder,  and  a  bitter 
newspaper  war  ensued.  The  four  important  papers,  ed- 
ited by  four  of  the  most  influential  editors  in  the  country 
—  Greeley,  Bennett,  Raymond,  and  Bryant  —  were  more 
bitterly  opposed  to  one  another  than  to  the  South.  De- 
spite their  differences,  they  were  all  loyal,  which  was  not 
true  of  some  few  minor  papers. 

The  Federal  grand  jury  for  the  southern  district  of 
New  York  suggested  that  some  of  these  other  New  York 
papers  should  be  indicted.  "  Their  conduct  is,  of  course, 
condemned  and  abhorred  by  all  loyal  men,  but  the  grand 
jury  will  be  glad  to  learn  from  the  Court  that  they  are 
also  subject  to  indictment  and  condign  punishment."  ^ 

The  bitterness  between  the  Northern  factions  — 
Greeley  on  one  side,  and  Weed,  Seward  and  Raymond  on 
the  other  ^ — was  intensified  by  the  fact  that  Weed  and 
Seward  believed  that,  by  putting  the  slave  issue  to  the 
rear,  a  compromise  might  be  effected  with  the  Sputh,  or  at 
least  with  the  border  states. 

Senator  Sumner  in  Congress,  and  Secretary  Chase  in 
the  Cabinet,  backed  the  policy  of  G.reeley,  who  now  be- 
came the  outspoken  oracle  of  what  was  known  as  the 
radical  element  at  the  North.  While  this  faction  was 
critical  of  Lincoln  in  the  beginning,  it  was  critical  mainly 

®  Appleton's  Encyclopedia,  iv,  1861,  329. 


CIVIL  WAR  315 

because  it  was  suspicious  of  the  influence  of  Weed  and 
Seward,  and  because  it  was  keenly  sensitive  to  the  fact 
that  the  former  was  susceptible  to  material  considerations. 
Additional  strength  was  given  to  these  critics  by  the  fact 
that  Weed  had  made  himself  unpopular  in  the  West, 
after  Lincoln's  nomination,  by  his  insulting  refusal  to 
entertain  the  suggestion  that  Seward  might  take  second 
place  on  the  ticket. 

The  loyalty  of  these  radicals,  however,  could  never  be 
questioned,  nor  could  they  be  confounded  with  another 
group  of  critics,  virulent  and  malignant,  such  as  were  re- 
ferred to  in  the  charge  of  the  grand  jury,  quoted  above. 
Some  of  these  papers  the  postmaster  had  excluded  from 
the  mails,  the  action  calling  forth  bitter  denunciation  from 
editors  who  had,  but  a  few  years  before,  chortled  with 
glee  when  Jackson's  Postmaster-General,  Amos  Kendall, 
had  excluded  anti-slavery  papers  from  the  mail.  On  the 
whole,  the  number  of  papers  affected  by  the  restrictions 
imposed  by  Lincoln  and  his  cabinet,  in  time  of  war,  never 
equaled  the  number  that  had  suffered  interference,  in  a 
time  of  peace,  under  Jackson  and  his  pro-slavery  post- 
master, Kendall. 

The  intense  feeling  on  the  part  of  both  radicals  and 
conservatives  as  to  the  emancipation  of  the  slaves  was 
reflected  in  Congress,  with  the  radicals  in  the  ascendant. 
It  was  then  that  Greeley,  urged  on  by  his  friends, —  who 
believed  that  a  blow  must  be  struck  —  wrote  and  printed 
his  famous  "  Prayer  of  Twenty  Millions,"  an  editorial 
signed  by  himself  and  addressed  to  Abraham  Lincoln.  . 

The  *'  prayer  "  —  a  signed,  three-column  editorial, 
heavily  leaded, —  began  by  stating  that  those  who  had  as- 
sisted in  making  Lincoln  President  expected  from  him 
enforcement  of  the  laws,  and  that  the  President  had  been 
remiss  in  the  discharge  of  his  ''  official  and  imperative 


3i6  HISTORY  OF  JOURNALISM 

auty  with  regard  to  the  emancipation  provisions  of  the 
new  Confiscation  Act.  These  provisions  were  designed  to 
fight  Slavery  with  Liberty.  They  prescribe  that  men 
loyal  to  the  Union  and  willing  to  shed  their  blood  in  her 
behalf  shall  no  longer  be  held,  with  the  Nation's  consent, 
in  bondage  to  persistent  malignant  traitors,  who  for 
twenty  years  have  been  plotting  and  for  sixteen  months 
have  been  fighting  to  divide  and  destroy  our  country." 

He  complained  that  the  President  had  given  too  much 
consideration  to  the  advice  of  **  fossil  politicians."  ''  The 
Union  cause  has  suffered  and  is  now  suffering  immensely, 
from  mistaken  deference  to  Rebel  Slavery."  ''' 

"  I  close,  as  I  began,  with  the  statement  that  what  an 
immense  majority  of  the  Loyal  Millions  of  your  country- 
men require  of  you  is  a  frank,  declared,  unqualified,  un- 
grudging execution  of  the  laws  of  the  land,  more  espe- 
cially of  the  Confiscation  Act.  That  act  gives  freedom 
to  the  slaves  of  Rebels  coming  within  our  lines,  or  whom 
these  lines  may  at  any  time  inclose, —  we  ask  you  to  ren- 
der it  due  obedience  by  publicly  requiring  all  your  sub- 
ordinates to  recognize  and  obey  it.  The  Rebels  are  every- 
where using  the  late  anti-negro  riots  in  the  North,  as  they 
have  long  used  your  officers'  treatment  of  negroes  in  the 
South,  to  convince  the  slaves  that  they  have  nothing  to 
hope  for  from  a  Union  success, —  that  we  mean  in  that 
case  to  sell  them  into  bitterer  bondage  to  defray  the  cost 
of  the  war.  Let  them  impress  this  as  a  truth  on  the 
great  mass  of  their  ignorant  and  credulous  bondmen,  and 
the  Union  will  never  be  restored  —  never.  We  cannot 
conquer  Ten  Millions  of  people  united  in  solid  phalanx 
against  us,  powerfully  aided  by  Northern  sympathizers 
and  European  allies.  We  must  have  scouts,  guides,  spies, 
cooks,  teamsters,  diggers  and  choppers  from  the  Blacks 

"^  New  York  Tribune,  August  20,  1862. 


CIVIL  WAR  317 

of  the  South,  whether  we  allow  them  to  fight  for  us  or 
not,  or  we  shall  be  baffled  and  repelled.  As  one  of  the 
millions  who  would  gladly  have  avoided  this  struggle 
at  any  sacrifice  but  that  of  Principle  and  Honor,  but  who 
now  feel  that  the  triumph  of  the  Union  is  indispensable 
not  only  to  the  existence  of  our  country  but  to  the  well- 
being  of  mankind,  I  entreat  you  to  render  a  hearty  and 
unequivocal  obedience  to  the  law  of  the  land." 

The  appeal  attracted  so  much  attention  that  Lincoln 
replied  to  it  himself  in  the  National  Intelligencer: 

"  I  would  save  the  Union.  If  there  be  those  who 
would  not  save  the  Union  unless  they  could  at  the  same 
time  save  slavery,  I  do  not  agree  with  them.  If  there 
be  those  who  would  not  save  the  Union  unless  they  could 
at  the  same  time  destroy  slavery,  I  do  not  agree  with 
them.  My  paramount  object  in  this  struggle  is  to  save 
the  Union,  and  it  is  not  either  to  save  or  destroy  slavery. 
If  I  could  save  the  Union  without  freeing  any  slave,  I 
would  do  it;  and  if  I  could  save  it  by  freeing  all  the 
slaves,  I  would  do  it;  and  if  I  could  save  it  by  freeing 
some  and  leaving  others  alone,  I  would  do  that.  What  I 
do  about  slavery  and  the  colored  race,  I  do  because  I 
believe  it  helps  to  save  the  Union ;  and  what  I  forbear,  I 
forbear  because  I  do  not  believe  it  would  help  to  save 
the  Union.  I  shall  do  less  whenever  I  believe  what  I  am 
doing  hurts  the  cause,  and  I  shall  do  more  when  I  shall 
believe  doing  more  will  help  the  cause."  ^ 

At  the  meeting  of  the  Cabinet  on  July  22,  1862,  Seward 
opposed  the  Emancipation  Proclamation ;  Weed,  who  had 
just  returned  from  London,  backed  up  the  opinion  of 
Seward;  Raymond,  who  had  made  the  Times  the  organ 
of  the  President,  was  always  for  the  suppression  of  the 
slavery  question.  The  Herald,  the  only  other  journal  of 
*  Lincoln's  Works,  ii,  227. 


3i8  HISTORY  OF  JOURNALISM 

weight  in  New  York,  was  against  anything  that  Greeley 
was  for.  It  was,  in  fact,  a  Democratic  organ  when  it 
possibly  could  be  without  being  absolutely  disloyal. 

Greeley  was  not  the  only  one  dissatisfied  'with  condi- 
tions. '*  The  Union  is  in  awful  peril,"  wrote  Joseph 
Medill,  of  the  Chicago  Tribune, —  whose  power  and  influ- 
ence were  increasing, —  to  Schuyler  Colfax.  "We  have 
fought  for  '  Union  and  Slavery '  for  sixteen  months. 
The  crisis  has  come  at  last.  One  or  the  other  must  be 
given  up,  both  cannot  endure.  We  as  a  nation  have 
rowed  against  Niagara's  stream,  but  have  drifted  steadily 
toward  the  chasm,  and  the  roar  of  the  cataract  can  be 
heard  by  all  but  the  wilfully  deaf.  The  Governors  have 
petitioned  the  President,  and  he  has  consented  to  receive 
three  hundred  thousand  more  volunteers.  But  they  will 
not  come.  Tell  the  President  he  must  call  louder.  He 
must  either  touch  the  popular  heart  by  calling  on  men  to 
fight  for  *  Union  and  Liberty,'  or  he  must  resort  to  con- 
scription, and  draft  his  recruits.  Tell  him  not  to  be 
deceived.  He  needs  these  recruits  now.  If  he  adopts 
the  former  policy,  a  million  men  will  obey  the  summons. 
But  he  must  give  us  freedom-loving  generals  to  lead 
them."  9 

A  later  criticism,  also  written  by  Medill  to  Colfax  and 
intended  to  be  transmitted  to  Lincoln,  shows  great  bitter- 
ness toward  Seward :  ''  McClellan  in  the  field  and  Seward 
in  the  Cabinet  have  been  the  evil  spirits  that  have  brought 
our  grand  cause  to  the  very  brink  of  death.  Seward  must 
be  got  out  of  the  Cabinet.  He  is  Lincoln's  evil  genius. 
He  has  been  President  de  facto,  and  has  kept  a  sponge 
saturated  with  chloroform  to  Uncle  Abe's  nose  all  the 
while,  except  one  or  two  brief  spells,  during  which  ra- 
tional intervals  Lincoln  removed  Buell,  issued  the  Eman- 
®  Hollister,  Life  of  Schuyler  Colfax,  i86. 


aVIL  WAR  319 

cipation  Proclamation,  and  discharged  McClellan.  Smith 
is  a  cipher  on  the  right  hand  of  the  Seward  integer  —  by 
himself,  nothing  but  a  doughface.  Bates  is  a  fossil  of  the 
Silurian  era  —  red  sandstone,  at  least  —  and  should 
never  have  been  quarried  out  of  the  rocks  in  which  he  was 
imbedded.  Blair  was  thrown  into  a  retrograde  position 
by  the  unfortunate  quarrel  of  his  brother  Frank  with 
Fremont.  There  must  be  a  reorganization  of  the  Cab- 
inet ;  Seward,  Smith  and  Bates  must  go  out."  ^^ 

Greeley  was  right,  and  his  success  as  the  moral  voice 
of  the  North  was  soon  to  be  demonstrated  in  a  way  that 
he  could  scarcely  have  anticipated, — by  the  downfall  of 
Thurlow  Weed,  his  former  partner,  but  now  his  bitter 
enemy. 

In  1863  Greeley  and  Weed,  in  a  stiff  battle  in  the  New 
York  Legislature,  backed  opposing  candidates  for  the 
U.  S.  Senate.  Weed  succeeded  in  electing  Edwin  D. 
Morgan,  with  the  assistance  of  Morgan's  money,  but  an- 
nounced, practically  at  the  same  time,  his  withdrawal  from 
the  Albany  Evening  Journal.  He  was  rich  and  inde- 
pendent, but,  although  at  the  time  of  his  retirement  he 
had  spent  thirty  years  in  building  up  a  powerful  political 
machine,  he  was  so  unpopular  throughout  the  state  that  he 
was  obliged  to  give  up  his  long-cherished  idea  of  remov- 
ing to  a  farm  near  Rochester,  there  to  spend  his  last  days. 
So  hostile  was  the  feeling  toward  him  in  that  section  that 
he  abandoned  this  idea  and  settled  in  New  York  City. 

Commenting  on  this  change  in  Weed's  political  for- 
tunes, Greeley  took  the  opportunity  to  compare  the  state- 
ments previously  made  by  Weed  and  Raymond  about  his 
ow^n  ambitions : 

*'  Let  it  pass  whether  or  not  the  editor  of  the  Tribune 
has  been  intensely  ambitious  for  office.     It  would  have 

lOHoUister,  Life  of  Schuyler  Colfax,  186. 


320  HISTORY  OF  JOURNALISM 

been  a  blessed  thing  for  the  country  if  the""  editor  of  the 
Journal  (Weed)  had  been  impelled  by  the  same  passion. 
For  avarice  is  more  ignoble  than  ambition,  and  the  crav- 
ing for  jobs  has  a  more  corrupting  influence,  alike  on 
the  individual  and  the  public,  than  aspiration  to  office."  ^^ 

He  was  a  good  hater,  was  Horace  Greeley. 

With  so  bitter  a  journalistic  rival  as  Bennett  on  one 
side,  such  sharp  and  unrelenting  party  rivals  as  Weed 
and  Raymond  on  another,  and  the  anti-Union  journals 
constituting  a  third  point  of  attack,  it  was  not  surpris- 
ing that,  when  the  draft  riots  came,  Greeley  and  his  office 
were  war  centers.  On  July  13,  1863,  the  office  of  the 
Tribune  was  attacked;  the  rioters  forced  an  entrance, 
threw  books  and  papers  out  of  the  window  and  set  fire 
to  the  place.  The  police  charged,  dispersing  the  mob 
with  a  number  of  cracked  skulls,  and  managed  to  put 
out  the  fire. 

One  of  Greeley's  many  enemies  started  the  rumor  that 
during  the  excitement  he  had  sought  refuge  under  a  table 
in  a  restaurant.  His  reply  to  the  slur  was  characteristic. 
He  stated  that,  against  the  advice  of  many  friends,  who 
had  warned  him  of  the  danger  of  attack  and  the  peril  of 
life  in  which  he  stood,  he  had  gone  as  usual  to  his  office. 
At  the  usual  time  for  his  evening  meal  he  left  his  office 
by  the  main  entrance,  "  went  over  to  Windust's  eating 
house  for  his  dinner,  passing  through  a  howling  mob  for 
nearly  the  entire  distance  and  was  recognized  by  several 
of  them."  The  next  day  he  returned  to  the  office,  *'  now 
being  armed,"  and  was  at  his  desk  every  day  that  week. 
And  whoever  "'  asserted  that  he  at  any  time  '  was  hiding 
under  Windust's  table  '  is  a  branded  liar  and  villain." 

Near  the  completion  of  Lincoln's  first  term,  when  the 
time  arrived  for  the  nomination  of  his  successor,  it  was 
^1  New  York  Tribune,  December  12,  1862. 


CIVIL  WAR  321 

observable  that  he  had  not,  among  all  his  so-called 
journalistic  supporters,  a  real  friend.  Although  Seward 
was  loyal.  Weed  sulked  in  his  camp  over  some  petty  ap- 
pointment. In  order  to  bring  him  back  into  the  field, 
the  President  was  obliged  to  write  him  a  humble  and 
somewhat  apologetic  letter. 

"  I  have  been  brought  to  fear  recently,"  the  President 
wrote,  with  characteristic  tenderness,  **  that  somehow,  by 
commission  or  omission,  I  have  caused  you  some  degree 
of  pain.  I  have  never  entertained  an  unkind  feeling  or 
a  disparaging  thought  towards  you;  and  if  I  have  said 
or  done  anything  w^hich  has  been  construed  into  such 
unkindness  or  disparagement,  it  has  been  misconstrued."  ^^ 

From  Greeley,  who  had  become  to  a  large  extent  a  party 
leader,  Lincoln  could  expect  little.  Weed,  as  well  as 
Greeley,  praised  General  U.  S.  Grant,  insinuating  that  he 
might  possibly  be  a  candidate  to  succeed  Lincoln,  but  when 
the  convention  assernbled  at  Baltimore,  on  June  7,  1864, 
the  opposition  had  weakened.  The  platform,  agreeable 
to  both  conservatives  and  radicals,  w^as  written  by  Henry 
J.  Raymond,  who  reached,  at  this  convention,  the  zenith 
of  his  power  and  influence.  ^^ 

The  development  of  a  presidential  boom  for  Horatio 
Seymour  resulted  in  Bennett's  veering  once  more  toward 
the  Democratic  party,  though  he  had  been  a  merciless 
critic  of  Seymour  as  Governor.  One  reads  the  speeches 
and  letters  of  the  Democratic  governor  with  amazement 
at  the  man's  stupidity  and  bad  manners.  The  only  politi- 
cal platform  that  men  like  Seymour  had  "svas  the  very 
honest  criticism  of  Lincoln  by  men  of  the  type  of  Greeley. 
Unfortunately  for  himself,  Seymour  never  realized  that 
men  like  Greeley  and  Raymond,  or  even  Weed,  w^hile 

12  Barnes,  Life  of  Thurlow  Weed,  ii,  440. 
^3  Alexander,  iii,  95. 


322  HISTORY  OF  JOURNALISM 

they  might  be  led  into  disagreeing  with  Lincoln,  would 
be  utterly  unable  to  associate  with  the  "  copperheadism  " 
of  Seymour. 

On  May  i8,  1864,  the  World  and  the  Journal  of  Com- 
merce printed  the  bogus  proclamation  of  Joseph  Howard, 
Jr.  Both  papers  were  immediately  suspended,  and  not 
allowed  to  resume  until  Monday,  May  23rd,  when  Man- 
ton  Marble,  the  editor  of  the  World,  in  a  three-column 
editorial,  upbraided  the  President.  Howard  had  been 
city  editor  of  the  Times,  and,  when  arrested,  was  at  his 
desk  as  city  editor  of  the  Brooklyn  Eagle.  Seymour  at 
once  endeavored  to  make  political  capital  out  of  the  sus- 
pension of  the  two  papers,  by  ordering  the  District  At- 
torney to  arrest  all  those  who  had  entered  the  offices  of 
either  paper. 

McClellan  was  nominated,  and  Bennett  was  inclined  to 
support  him.  Lincoln  wrote  privately  to  Bennett  and 
asked  him  to  accept  the  mission  to  France.  The  editor 
declined  the  offer,  but  his  vanity  was  tickled ;  the  Herald 
slowly  veered  about  and,  before  the  campaign  was  over, 
was  advocating  Lincoln's  election.  ^^  It  was  at  this  time 
that  Greeley  made  his  Quixotic  trip  to  Niagara  Falls,  to 
negotiate  with  the  ambassadors  of  Jefferson  Davis. 
Although  the  futility  of  this  was  evident, —  to  no  one  so 
much  as  to  Lincoln  —  the  trip  was  good  for  Greeley,  as 
the  offer  of  the  mission  to  France  was  good  for  Bennett. 

A  month  before  the  election,  Greeley  and  Weed  were  of 
the  opinion  that  Lincoln  could  not  avoid  defeat,  and  Ray- 
mond wrote  to  the  President  that  his  stand  on  the  slavery 
question  was  affecting  his  chances  of  success.  ^^  The  im- 
portance of  this  statement, —  the  crime  of  it,  from  a  politi- 
cal point  of  view  —  is  that  it  was  made  by  the  Chairman 
of  the  Republican  National  Executive  Committee. 
1*  McClure,  80.  ^^  Nicolay-Hay,  ix,  218. 


CIVIL  WAR  323 

But  Lincoln  stood  firm,  despite  his  editorial  advisors 
and  detractors ;  he  wrote  Grant  to  ''  hang  on  like  a  bull- 
dog and  keep  choking  and  chewing  "  and,  in  September, 
the  tide  turned.  The  nation  was  thrilled  by  Sheridan's 
defeat  of  Early,  and  Grant  was  able  to  proclaim  that 
"  The  rebels  have  now  in  their  ranks  their  last  man."  ^^ 
The  spirit  of  the  North  responded  to  the  eloquence  of 
George  William  Curtis,  the  young  editor  of  Harper  s 
Weekly,  who,  referring  to  the  farewell  speech  of  Alex- 
ander Stephens  on  his  retirement  from  public  life  in  1859, 
said: 

**  Listen  to  Mr.  Stephens  in  the  summer  sunshine  six 
years  ago.  '  There  is  not  now  a  spot  of  the  public  ter- 
ritory of  the  United  States  over  which  the  national  flag 
floats  where  slavery  is  excluded  by  the  law  of  Congress, 
and  the  highest  tribunal  of  the  land  has  decided  that  Con- 
gress has  no  power  to  make  such  a  law.  At  this  time 
there  is  not  a  ripple  upon  the  surface.  The  country  was 
never  in  a  pro  founder  quiet.'  Do  you  comprehend  the 
terrible  significance  of  those  words?  He  stops;  he  sits 
down.  The  summer  sun  sets  over  the  fields  of  Georgia. 
Good-night,  Mr.  Stephens  —  a  long  good-night.  Look 
out  from  your  window  —  how  calm  it  is !  Upon  the 
Missionary  Ridge,  upon  Lookout  Mountain,  upon  the 
heights  of  Dalton,  upon  the  spires  of  Atlanta,  silence  and 
solitude ;  the  peace  of  the  Southern  policy  of  slavery  and 
death.  But  look !  Hark !  Through  the  great  five  years 
before  you  a  light  is  shining  —  a  sound  is  ringing.  It  is 
the  gleam  of  Sherman's  bayonets,  it  is  the  roar  of  Grant's 
guns,  it  is  the  red  daybreak  and  wild  morning  music  of 
peace  indeed,  the  peace  of  national  life  and  liberty."  ^^ 
Lincoln  was  swept  into  office  with  179  electoral  votes 

^^  Alexander,  iii,  120. 

"  Gary,  G.  W.  Curtis,  186. 


324  HISTORY  OF  JOURNALISM 

to  21  for  McClellan,  but  the  record  of  New  York  was 
not  one  of  which  its  citizens  should  feel  proud.  In  a 
total  of  730,821  votes,  Lincoln  had  only  6,749  more  than 
McClellan.  At  the  same  election  Raymond  went  to  Con- 
gress,—  to  his  own  surprise,  it  was  said, —  carrying  by 
386  a  Tammany  Hall  district  that  in  1862  had  given  a 
Democratic  majority  of  2,000.  *'  It  was  the  greatest  vic- 
tory of  the  year,"  says  Alexander,  "  and  in  the  end  led  to 
the  saddest  event  of  his  life." 

The  election  was  to  have  brought  to  Greeley,  also,  the 
reward  that  he  craved.  Lincoln  had  sent  word  to  him, 
during  the  campaign,  that  in  the  event  of  his  re-election, 
Seward  would  probably  go  to  England  as  Ambassador; 
in  that  event,  *'  Greeley  would  make  an  admirable  suc- 
cessor to  Benjamin  Franklin,  the  first  Posmaster  Gen- 
eral." 

Shortly  after  the  inauguration,  Greeley  sent  a  mes- 
senger to  the  President,  to  remind  him  of  his  suggestion 
of  the  previous  fall.  The  messenger  arrived  in  Wash- 
ington the  morning  after  John  Wilkes  Booth  had  fired 
the  fatal  shot.^^ 

18  Alexander,  iii,  126. 


CHAPTER  XXIV 

AFTER  THE  WAR 

Attempt  of  press  to  control  politics  —  Failure  of  Raymond  — 
Widespread  indifference  to  corruption  —  Samuel  Bowles  — 
Platform  of  new  reform  movement  —  Carl  Schurz  —  Lib- 
erty party  —  Greeley's  candidacy  —  His  defeat  —  Blaine  on 
Greeley  —  Joseph  Medill  —  Correspondence  with  Greeley, 
Webb  and  Seward  —  Chicago  Tribune. 

The  story  of  journalism  now  enters  directly  into  the 
field  of  political  reform.  The  question  is  no  longer  one 
of  the  newspaper  in  its  proper  field,  representing  the  peo- 
ple, but  of  its  controlling  the  machinery  of  politics. 
Greeley,  Raymond  and  Weed  came  to  grief,  as  we  have 
seen,  in  their  attempts  to  control. 

Raymond,  acting  as  spokesman  for  President  Lincoln, 
had  been  largely  instrumental  in  bringing  about  the  nomi- 
nation of  Andrew  Johnson  for  Vice-President.  Shortly 
after  Johnson  took  office,  Weed  breakfasted  with  him, 
and  from  now  on  Raymond  and  Weed  were  his  advisors 
and  spokesmen ;  on  the  floor  of  Congress  Raymond  cham- 
pioned his  cause,  to  his  own  humiliation  and  defeat.  As 
he  aligned  himself  with  the  President  in  his  reckless  dis- 
regard of  the  wishes  of  Congress,  Raymond  was  watched 
with  amazement  by  his  own  party.  With  the  assistance 
of  Raymond,  Seward  and  Weed,  Johnson  attempted  to 
organize  a  National  party,  at  the  convention  held  in  Phila- 
delphia in  August,  1866.  Raymond,  in  his  loyalty  to  the 
President,  went  so  far  as  to  declare  that  the  southern 
states,  no  matter  how  great  their  disloyalty,  could  not  be 

325 


326  HISTORY  OF  JOURNALISM 

deprived  of  their  rights.  Within  two  weeks  he  was  re- 
moved from  the  chairmanship  of  the  Repubhcan  National 
Committee,  and  later  removed  from  the  Committee.  His 
career  was  ended,  and  he  died  three  years  later. 

Brilliant,  diplomatic,  forceful,  Raymond's  failure  as  a 
legislator  was  ascribed  to  the  fact  that  he  had  not  begun 
his  congressional  career  until  he  was  too  old  to  learn  what 
was  practically  a  new  vocation.  On  the  other  hand,  he 
was  only  fortynfive  years  of  age,  and,  of  the  men  who 
distinguished  themselves  in  Congress,  many  had  made 
their  maiden  efforts  at  a  much  later  time  in  life.  James 
G.  Blaine  suggested  that  if,  when  he  was  elected  Lieu- 
tenant-Governor, he  had  instead  been  elected  to  Congress, 
the  story  might  have  been  different. 

The  student  of  journalism  will  see  a  far  different  rea- 
son for  Raymond's  failure.  A  journalist  can  never  suc- 
ceed unless  he  is  fathering  popular  or  moral  causes. 
Weed,  who  made  a  fortune  out  of  politics,  who  was  for 
years  the  political  boss  of  his  state  —  even  aspiring,  under 
Johnson,  to  be  the  political  boss  of  the  nation, —  was  also 
a  failure,  despite  his  great  wealth.  He  failed  to  appre- 
ciate the  drift  of  public  sentiment,  and  so  lost  control  of 
the  politics  of  New  York  State  to  so  Quixotic  and  tem- 
peramental a  figure  as  Greeley. 

At  the  time  when  Raymond  started  the  New  York 
Times,  there  was  a  broad  field  of  usefulness  for  the  con- 
servative journal  that  he  had  planned,  but,  just  as  Greeley 
ran  to  an  extreme  in  his  fanaticism,  his  individualism, 
and  his  pursuit  of  everything  that  seemed  human  or  ideal- 
istic, so  Raymond  in  the  field  of  conservatism,  guided  by 
the  very  materialistic  Weed  and  influenced  by  the  dis- 
appointed Seward,  ran  to  a  narrow  conception  of  politics 
and  government ;  he  was  obsessed  by  the  idea  that  politi- 
cal power  could  do  little  wrong.     His  mistake  was  that 


AFTER  THE  WAR  327 

of  the  man  in  office  —  the  bHndness  of  those  in  power, 
competing  with  men  who  had  no  such  weakness  and  who 
still  had  the  eagerness  of  unfulfilled  ambition.  It  illus- 
trates the  truth  of  the  statement  that  great  journalism 
is  journalism  in  attack;  great  journalism  is  never  journal- 
ism in  office. 

The  month  after  Raymond's  removal,  the  New  York 
State  Republican  Convention  was  held,  and  both  Weed 
and  Raymond  were  conspicuously  absent.  They  had 
risen  to  the  zenith  of  political  power,  but  had  fallen;  their 
fall  was  due  less  to  a  political  catastrophe  than  to  an 
awakening  of  the  moral  sense  of  the  people. 

Immediately  after  the  Civil  War, —  as  there  is  likely 
to  be  after  every  war,  after  every  great  moral  ebullition 
—  there  had  sprung  up,  in  the  wake  of  material  progress, 
an  indifference  to  the  finer  questions  of  morality.  For 
twenty-one  years  the  struggle  on  slavery  had  so  engrossed 
the  nation  that  many  other  important  problems  had  been 
neglected  —  practically  pushed  aside. 

The  attention  of  the  nation  had  been  concentrated  on 
the  larger  issues,  and  unscrupulous  men  had  availed  them- 
selves of  the  opportunities  afforded  by  that  concentration 
to  encompass  their  own  ends,  often  to  the  detriment  of 
the  public  welfare. 

"  Great  projects  of  money-making  throve  and  multi- 
plied," says  the  biographer  of  Samuel  Bowles,  ''  corpora- 
tions enriched  by  the  government  used  their  wealth  to 
corrupt  legislation;  the  tendency  to  speculate  was  stimu- 
lated by  a  currency  of  fluctuating  value;  business  expan- 
sion and  private  extravagance  went  on  till  checked  by  the 
disaster  of  1873.  Bestowal  of  public  office  as  a  reward 
for  partisan  service,  an  evil  of  long  standing,  had  been 
confirmed  when  Lincoln  virtually  transferred  the  patron- 
age from  his  overworked  Administration  to  the  Republi- 


328  HISTORY  OF  JOURNALISM 

can  Congressmen.  Its  mischief  was  widened  by  the  mul- 
tiplication of  executive  officers ;  its  wrong  was  only  slowly 
appreciated  by  the  people  at  large.  The  Democratic  party 
at  the  north  had  been  debauched  and  demoralized  by  its 
attitude  during  the  war,  and  the  Republican  party  had 
become  so  sacred  in  the  eyes  of  most  of  its  adherents  that 
under  its  shelter  abuses  found  easy  tolerance.  The  pro- 
gressive political  work  of  the  years  from  1868  on  was 
largely  of  a  very  disagreeable  kind.  It  consisted  very 
much  in  the  rooting  out  of  abuses  both  old  and  new.  A 
great  deal  of  it  resembled  more  the  work  of  a  policeman 
than  a  prophet."  ^ 

We  have  seen  in  the  Republican  convention  of  i860, 
particularly  on  the  part  of  those  from  the  West,  a  dis- 
trust of  the  type  of  politician  represented  by  Seward  and 
Weed.  The  references  at  that  time  to  the  use  of  money 
indicated  that,  though  the  question  had  not  yet  become  a 
primary  one,  corruption  in  politics  was  sooner  or  later  to 
be  a  matter  of  absorbing  public  interest.  The  time  had 
now  come  for  warfare  on  this  corruption,  and  in  the  re- 
construction period,  the  Springfield  (Mass.)  Republican, 
under  Samuel  Bowles,  became  a  journal  of  national  in- 
fluence, through  its  vigorous  and  continued  denunciation 
of  corrupt  leaders  and  their  connection  with  politics. 

Bowles  had  very  sharply  delineated  the  character  of 
James  Fisk,  Jr.,  a  notorious  stock  gambler  and  corrup- 
tionist.  When  Bowles  later  visited  New  York,  Fisk  had 
him  arrested  and  locked  up  in  Ludlow  Street  jail.  The 
afifair  attracted  nation-wide  attention,  and  many  promi- 
nent citizens  of  Boston,  wishing  to  do  Bowles  honor,  ten- 
dered him  a  dinner.  The  editor  declined,  but  in  so  doing 
he  wrote  the  platform  of  the  new  reform  movement. 

*'  The  corruption  in  politics  and  the  corruption  in  busi- 

^  Merriam,  Life  of  Samuel  Bozvles,  ii,  88. 


AFTER  THE  WAR  329 

ness  affalr§,"  he  said, ''  have  become  offensive  and  startHng 
within  the  past  few  years,  and  the  moral  sense  of  the  com- 
munity seems  at  times  to  have  become  blunted  by  the  suc- 
cessful display  and  repetition  of  practices  that  violate 
every  principle  of  fair  dealing  and  integrity  and  put  the 
control  of  government  and  the  value  of  many  kinds  of 
property  at  the  mercy  of  political  adventurers  and  ruth- 
less stock-gamblers.  The  press  really  seems  to  be  the 
best,  if  not  the  only  instrument,  with  which  honest  men 
can  light  these  enemies  of  order  and  integrity  in  govern- 
ment and  security  in  property  .  .  .  American  journal- 
ism is  now  but  in  its  feeble  infancy ;  —  but  we  have  more 
to  fear  at  present  from  its  good  nature,  from  its  subserv- 
iency, from  its  indifference,  from  its  fear  to  encounter 
prosecution  and  loss  of  patronage  by  the  exposure  of  the 
wrong  and  the  exposition  of  the  right.  A  courageous 
independence  and  integrity  of  purpose,  coupled  with  a 
fearless  expression  of  truth  as  to  all  public  individuals, 
corporations  and  parties,  are  the  features  in  its  character 
to  be  most  encouraged. 

"  My  own  observation  is  that  the  Press  rarely  does 
injustice  to  a  thoroughly  honest  man  or  cause.  It  may 
be  deceived  with  regard  to  a  private  individual,  and  mis- 
represent him  for  a  time;  but  with  reference  to  public 
men  and  measures,  its  knowledge  is  more  intimate  and 
competent  than  that  of  any  other  agency  possibly  can  be; 
and  I  know  that  it  withholds  unjustly  to  the  public  one 
hundred  times,  where  it  speaks  wrongly  once  of  the  in- 
dividual. Certainly,  nine  out  of  ten  of  all  libel-suits 
against  the  Press  are  brought  by  adventurers,  and  specu- 
lators, and  scoundrels,  whose  contrivances  to  rob  the  pub- 
lic have  been  exposed.  .  .  ." 

Almost  the  same  sentiments  were  being  expressed  by 
equally  courageous  men,  in  different  sections  of  the  conn- 


33^  HISTORY  OF  JOURNALISM 

try,  and  a  coalition  of  these  forces  was  bound  to  occur. 
In  Missouri,  the  leader  of  the  protest  was  a  very  remark- 
able character,  Carl  Schurz,  the  editor  of  the  St.  Louis 
Westliche  Post.  Schurz  had  been  a  general  in  the  Union 
army;  he  was  one  of  the  German  patriots  who  had  been 
driven  out  of  their  native  land  because  of  their  battle  for 
liberty. 

Nominally,  the  Liberal  movement  had  its  origin  in  the 
state  of  Missouri  in  1870.  The  state  had  not  seceded,  but 
thousands  of  its  citizens  had  joined  the  rebel  ranks.  To 
prevent  these  men  fighting  against  the  Union  as  civilians, 
an  amendment  to  the  Constitution  had  deprived  them  of 
the  rights  of  citizenship,  and  the  Republicans,  who  held 
control  of  the  legislature,  were  not  inclined  to  restore 
these  rights  at  once.  Then  and  there,  headed  by  Carl 
Schurz  and  Benjamin  Gratz  Brown,  began  the  forma- 
tion of  the  new  movement.  These  Liberals  combined 
with  the  Democrats  and  Missouri  was  turned  over  to 
Democratic  control. 

In  many  northern  states,  different  conditions  were 
bringing  about  a  feeling,  among  a  vigorous  minority, 
that  the  Republican  party  had  failed  to  avail  itself  of  its 
possibilities,  despite  its  conduct  of  the  war.  It  must  be 
remembered  that  the  Republican  party  was  very  young, 
and  that  to  it  there  was  not  the  attachment  that  was  to  be 
expected  of  the  Democratic  party,  which  had  existed 
ever  since  the  first  president.  On  the  Democratic  party, 
however,  was  the  stain  of  disloyalty,  and  many  men, 
although  they  found  themselves  out  of  sympathy  with 
the  Republicans,  were  still  unable  to  forget  the  record  of 
the  opposition  during  the  war.  They  turned  with  en- 
thusiasm to  the  third  party,  made  up  principally  of  bolters 
from  the  Republican  ranks. 

Originating  with  Carl  Schurz,  the  new  party  was  al- 


AFTER  THE  WAR  331 

most  "  newspaper  made,"  for  the  leading  figures  included 
many  of  the  famous  editors  of  the  North.  In  every 
northern  state  there  was  opposition  within  the  Republican 
party  to  the  administration  of  Grant,  and  Schouler  in 
the  Cincinnati  Commercial,  Medill  in  the  Chicago  Trib- 
une and  Greeley  in  the  New  York  Tribune,  all  helped  to 
fan  the  flames. 

The  national  convention  of  the  Liberal  Republicans, 
called  by  the  Liberals  of  Missouri,  was  held  at  Cincinnati 
in  May,  1872.  Among  the  leaders  of  the  convention  were 
Colonel  A.  K.  McClure,  editor  of  the  Philadelphia  Times, 
Carl  Schurz  and  Joseph  Pulitzer  of  Missouri,  and  Horace 
White,  one  of  the  owners  of  the  Chicago  Tribune. 

The  politicians  who  had  gone  to  the  convention  with 
the  intention  of  controlling  the  nominations,  viewed  the 
result  of  the  balloting  with  disappointment  and  surprise 
—  Horace  Greeley  was  nominated.  The  Free  Trade 
Liberals  in  New  York,  at  a  meeting  presided  over  by  Wil- 
liam Cullen  Bryant,  at  once  disowned  the  new  Liberal 
party  and  its  candidate. 

Friends  had  told  Greeley  that  it  would  be  impossible 
for  the  Democrats  to  support  him  for  the  Presidency. 
His  reply  to  this  shows  the  same  weakness  that  he  had 
exhibited  in  similar  circumstances  in  an  interview  with 
Thurlow  Weed  for  the  governorship  of  New  York.  He 
immediately  suggested  that  if  he  were  not  an  available 
candidate  for  President,  he  hoped  he  would  be  considered 
acceptable  for  the  second  place  on  the  ticket.^ 

His  nomination  put  no  heart  into  the  men  who  had  to 
make  the  fight  for  him.  Even  the  state  of  New  Hamp- 
shire, in  which  he  had  spent  his  boyhood,  rebelled 
against  his  nomination  and,  in  the  October  elections,  the 
Republicans  won  in  a  landslide.  He  made  a  sturdy, 
2  McQure,  301. 


332  HISTORY  OF  JOURNALISM 

statesmanlike  fight,  but  it  was  soon  apparent  that  the 
battle  was  hopeless.  While  he  was  still  bearing  up  under 
the  gloom  that  followed  the  October  elections,  he  was 
called  home  to  nurse  his  dying  wife;  he  passed  a  month 
of  sleepless  nights,  and  was  at  her  bedside  when  she 
died,  a  week  before  his  defeat  in  November.  A  few 
weeks  later,  November  29,  1872,  his  own  death  came. 

"  I  was  an  abolitionist  for  years,"  he  said  a  few  days 
before  he  died,  '*  when  to  be  one  was  as  much  as  one's 
life  was  worth  even  here  in  New  York, —  and  the  ne- 
groes have  all  voted  against  me.  Whatever  of  talents 
or  energy  I  have  possessed,  I  have  freely  contributed  all 
my  life  to  protection,  to  the  cause  of  our  manufac- 
turers; and  the  manufacturers  have  expended  millions  to 
defeat  me.  I  even  made  myself  ridiculous  in  the  opinion 
of  many  whose  good  wishes  I  desired,  by  showing  fair 
play  and  giving  a  fair  field  in  the  Tribune  to  Women's 
Rights ;  and  the  women  have  all  gone  against  me." 

So  passed  Horace  Greeley,  one  of  the  greatest  of 
American  journalists,  human  in  his  faults,  human  in 
his  greatness.  He  represented  better  than  any  other  man 
in  history  what  is  noble  and  lasting  in  journalism.  Of 
all  that  was  written  of  him,  none  wrote  with  more  un- 
derstanding than  did  James  G.  Blaine. 
'  "  The  strain  through  which  he  had  passed,  following 
years  of  incessant  care  and  labor,  had  broken  his  vigor- 
ous constitution,"  wrote  Blaine  after  Greeley's  death. 
"  His  physical  strength  was  completely  undermined,  his 
superb  intellectual  powers  gave  way.  Before  the  ex- 
piration of  the  month  which  witnessed  his  crushing  de- 
feat he  had  gone  to  his  rest.  The  controversies  which 
had  so  recently  divided  the  country  were  hushed  in  the 
presence  of  death;  and  all  the  people,  remembering  only 
his  noble  impulses,  his  great  work  for  humanity,  his  broad 


AFTER  THE  WAR  333 

impress  upon  the  age,  united  in  honoring  and  mourning 
one  of  the  most  remarkable  men  in  American  history. 
"  His  mind  was  original,  creative,  incessantly  active. 
His  industry  was  as  unwearying  as  his  fertility  was  in- 
exhaustible. Great  as  was  his  intellectual  power,  his 
chief  strength  came  from  the  depth  and  earnestness  of 
his  moral  convictions.  In  the  long  and  arduous  battle 
against  the  aggression  of  Slavery,  he  had  been  sleepless 
and  untiring  in  rousing  and  quickening  the  public  con- 
science. He  was  keenly  alive  to  the  distinctions  of  right 
and  wrong,  and  his  philanthropy  responded  to  every  call 
of  humanity.  His  sympathies  were  equally  touched  by 
the  suffering  of  the  famine-stricken  Irish  and  by  the 
wrongs  of  the  plundered  Indians.  Next  to  Henry  Clay, 
whose  ardent  disciple  he  was,  he  had  done  more  than  any 
other  man  to  educate  his  countrymen  in  the  American 
system  of  protection  to  home  industry.  He  had  on  all 
occasions  zealously  defended  the  rights  of  labor;  he  had 
made  himself  an  oracle  with  the  American  farmers ;  and 
his  influence  was  even  more  potent  in  the  remote  prairie 
homes  than  within  the  shadow  of  Printing-House  Square. 
With  his  dogmatic  earnestness,  his  extraordinary  men- 
tal qualities,  his  moral  power,  and  his  quick  sympathy 
with  the  instincts  and  impulses  of  the  masses,  he  was  in 
a  peculiar  sense  the  Tribune  of  the  people.  In  any  reck- 
oning of  the  personal  forces  of  the  century,  Horace 
Greeley  must  be  counted  among  the  foremost  —  intellec- 
tually and  morally."  ^ 

What  Greeley  and  the  New  York  Tribune  were  to  the 
East,  Joseph  Medill  and  the  Chicago  Tribune  were  to  the 
West.  Without  Greeley's  temperamental  difficulties  and 
without  Greeley's  great  ambition,  Medill  succeeded  in  de- 
veloping a  great  newspaper.     That  was  to  him  ample 

3  Twenty  Years  in  Congress,  ii,  532-536. 


334  HISTORY  OF  JOURNALISM 

satisfaction, —  although  it  brought  with  it  poHtical  honors, 
they  never  gave  him  such  disturbing  moments  as  those 
with  which  the  great  eastern  editor  had  to  contend. 

Such  education  as  Medill  received  he  obtained  while 
working  on  his  father's  farm  in  Stark  County,  Ohio. 
He  studied  law  and  was  admitted  to  the  bar  in  1864; 
his  association  with  the  editor  of  the  local  paper  attracted 
him  to  journalism,  however,  and  he  learned  to  set  type 
and  work  a  hand  press.  The  result  was  that  he  gave  up 
the  idea  of  practicing  law,  and  in  1843  ^^  bought  out 
the  Coshocton  Whig,  changing  the  name  to  Coshocton 
Republican.  Like  so  many  young  men  in  the  middle  west 
at  that  time,  he  burned  with  indignation  over  the  ag- 
gressiveness and  the  arrogance  of  the  South,  and  in  his 
little  paper  the  editorials  were  so  bitter  that  on  one  occa- 
sion sundry  Democrats  waylaid  him  and  answered  his 
editorial  attacks  with  cuts  and  bruises.  Two  years  later 
he  moved  to  Cleveland,  and  established  the  first  Free  Soil 
morning  paper  in  that  city.  This  paper,  the  name  of 
which  was  changed  to  the  Cleveland  Leader,  is  to-day  one 
of  the  important  papers  of  the  country. 

Medill's  great  work  was  to  unite  the  Free  Soil  and  the 
Whig  parties.  The  Whigs  were  controlled  by  the  slave 
element,  and  it  was  Medill's  task  to  draw  such  of  the 
Whigs  as  were  not  under  the  domination  of  the  pro- 
slavery  element,  into  a  new  party,  which  he  proposed  to 
call  the  "  Republican."  He  wrote  to  Horace  Greeley  to 
ask  his  advice  about  his  proposed  third  party ;  we  see  from 
this  how  easy  it  was  for  Greeley  to  influence  the  country, 
when  men  like  Joseph  Medill  looked  to  him  as  a  leader. 

"  Go  ahead,  my  friend,  with  your  proposed  Republican 
party,  and  God  bless  you,"  Greeley  replied.  ''  I  hope  you 
will  have  the  best  of  luck.  The  time  has  indeed  come  to 
bury  our  beloved  party;  it  is  dead.     But  we  have  many 


AFTER  THE  WAR  335 

fool  friends  who  insist  it  is  only  in  a  comatose  state  and 
will  recover,  but  I  tell  them  it  is  dead  —  still,  I  dare  not 
yet  in  New  York  announce  the  demise  of  the  party  and 
call  for  the  organization  of  a  new  one.  But  do  you  go 
ahead  on  the  Western  reserve  and  commence  the  work. 
I  like  the  name  for  it  (Republican).  I  was  opposed  to 
J.  Watson  Webb  when  he  changed  the  name  Democrat- 
Republican  to  Whig,  but  at  that  time  he  had  the  public 
ear.  If  you  can  get  the  name  Republican  started  in  the 
West  it  will  grow  in  the  East.  I  fully  agree  to  the  new 
name  and  the  new  christening." 

James  Watson  Webb  and  Thurlow  Weed,  to  whom  he 
also  wrote,  scolded  him  for  such  a  suggestion,  but  Wil- 
liam H.  Seward  suggested  that  the  idea  was  worth  trying 
out.  Finally,  one  night  in  March,  1854,  a  meeting  was 
called  in  the  office  of  the  Cleveland  Leader,  and  there  was 
born  the  National  Republican  party,  the  platform  of 
which  w^as  **  No  more  slave  states ;  no  more  slave  terri- 
tory ;  resistance  to  pro-slavery  aggression ;  slavery  is  sec- 
tional; liberty  is  national." 

The  following  year  an  opportunity  came  and  Medill 
went  to  Chicago  to  take  an  interest  in  the  Chicago  Trib- 
une. From  1855  until  the  time  of  his  death  in  1888  he 
was,  in  the  public  mind,  the  editor  and  controller  of  the 
Tribune,  though  during  several  periods,  notably  the  time 
that  he  served  as  mayor  of  Chicago,  he  was  not  in  edi- 
torial control. 


CHAPTER  XXV 

EDITORS  OF  THE  NEW  SCHOOL 

Charles  Anderson  Dana  —  His  broadness  of  view  -r—  Brook 
Farm  colony  —  Fourteen  years  with  Tribune  —  Assistant  sec- 
retary of  war  —  Editor  of  Sun  —  Opposition  to  Grant  —  Atti- 
tude toward  Tweed  —  Bennett  the  younger  and  the  Herald 
—  The  Times  —  Whitelaw  Reid  —  Henry  Watterson  —  His 
views  on  journalism. 

Art  comes  into  journalism  late,  as  it  comes  into  so 
many  of  the  artifices  of  men.  It  is  impossible  to  do  jus- 
tice to  the  life  and  work  of  Charles  Anderson  Dana 
unless  one  views  him  as  a  journalist  in  whom  the  artis- 
tic side  of  his  profession  was  dominant.  A  common 
point  of  view  has  been  that  of  the  literary  critic  who  de- 
clared that  "  in  its  exercise  of  its  recording  functions  it 
(journalism)  is  a  useful  trade,  and  in  its  commenting 
office  it  takes  rank  as  a  profession,  but  it  is  never  an 
art."  1 

We  have  here  an  old-fashioned  criticism,  a  point  of 
view  not  so  common  now  as  it  was  before  Charles  An- 
derson Dana  made  of  journalism  an  art.  He  saw  his 
great  profession  as  no  one  had  seen  it  before  him,  as  a 
whole,  as  a  very  human  whole,  and  he  left  an  impression 
on  his  time  that  can  only  be  compared  to  that  made  by 
Addison  and  Steele  on  the  essayists  of  the  early  eight- 
eenth century.  Despite  his  cynicism  and  the  errors  of 
taste  and  judgment  into  which  his  personal  disappoint- 
ments led  him,  his  entire  period  of  editorial  control  was 
suffused  with  such  an  optimism  as  regards  the  intelli- 

1  Boynton,  Journalism  and  Literature^  5. 

336 


EDITORS  OF  THE  NEW  SCHOOL  337 

gence  of  the  American  people  that  one  is  led  to  feel  that 
there  was  'much  virtue  in  the  ''  vice  "  that  so  aroused  his 
doleful  critics. 

Dana  was  born  in  New  Hampshire  in  18 19  and,  when 
twelve  years  of  age,  went  to  Buffalo  to  become  a  clerk  in 
his  uncle's  store.  Here  Indians  were  sometimes  custo- 
mers and  he  learned  the  Seneca  language,  adding  to  it 
Latin  and  Greek,  and  later  on  prepared  himself  to  enter 
Harvard,  which  he  did  in  1839.  When  he  was  obliged 
to  leave  college  he  joined  the  Brook  Farm  Colony  and, 
to  pay  his  way,  taught  Greek  and  German  in  addition  to 
w^aiting  on  the  table.  He  was  thus  early  associated  with 
all  that  was  cultured  and  scholarly  in  America  and  it  was 
through  his  Brook  Farm  experiences  that  he  came  to  know 
Horace  Greeley  and  to  be  employed  by  him  in  February, 
1847,  ^s  the  city  editor  of  the  Tribune,  at  $10  a  week. 
On  the  Tribune  he  soon  became  an  important  factor,  so 
much  so  that  credit  was  given  to  him  for  many  of  the 
editorials  that  were  commonly  ascribed  to  Greeley.  His 
was  the  broader  culture,  and  Greeley  deferred  to  it,  as 
is  shown  by  the  frequent  letters  that  he  wrote  to  him 
from  Washington  when  Dana  was  acting  as  managing 
editor  and  Greeley  was  writing  on  the  politics  of  the 
nation. 

On  one  occasion  Dana,  who  was  much  interested  in 
the  new  Opera  House,  left  Greeley's  Washington  article 
out  of  the  paper  to  make  way  for  his  favorite  subject. 
Greeley  good-naturedly  protested: 

*' What  would  it  cost  to  burn  the  Opera  House?  If 
the  price  is  reasonable,  have  it  done  and  send  me  the  bill." 

The  campaign  in  the  Tribune  for  an  early  movement 
of  the  northern  troops  in  1861  was  Dana's,  though  it 
was  Greeley  who  had  to  stand  for  the  pleasant  sugges- 
tion of  Bennett  that  hanging  was  too  good  for  the  man 


33^  HISTORY  OF  JOURNALISM 

who  started  the  cry  *'  On  to  Richmond.'^  The  parting 
between  Greeley  and  Dana  came,  however,  as  a  shock 
to  the  younger  man.  Greeley  notified  the  stockholders 
that  if  he,  Dana,  did  not  leave,  Greeley  would.  This 
was  a  blow  to  Dana,  whose  relations  with  Greeley  had 
recently  been  most  friendly  and  he  thought  that  some 
misunderstanding  must  be  at  the  bottom  of  it.  He  sent 
a  friend  to  Greeley  to  test  him  out  and  found  that  it  was 
true.  Accordingly  he  resigned  on  March  28,  1862,  and 
found  himself  at  the  age  of  forty-three,  after  fourteen 
years  on  the  Tribune,  one  of  the  best  equipped  newspaper 
men  in  America,  but  with  no  place  open  for  him.^ 

His  ability,  however,  was  known  in  Washington  and 
the  most  important  work  of  his  life  came  through  the 
accident  of  his  non-employment.  In  1863  he  was  asked 
to  come  to  Washington,  and  President  Lincoln  and  Sec- 
retary of  War  Stanton  employed  him,  not  to  spy  on  Gen- 
eral Grant,  but  to  tell  them  frankly  whether  it  was  true, 
as  his  enemies  declared,  that  Grant  was  drinking  himself 
into  idiocy.  His  reports  on  Grant  resulted  in  the  Gen- 
eral's receiving  from  Washington  the  heartiest  coopera- 
tion. 

The  war  over,  he  resigned  as  Assistant  Secretary  of 
War  and  went  to  Chicago  to  become  the  editor  of  the 
Republican.  The  paper,  however,  was  not  sufficiently 
financed,  and  again  he  was  the  journalist  without  the 
journal. 

At  a  time  when  most  men  are  settled  in  life,  Dana  was 
yet  to  begin  a  career.  On  January  25,  1868,  a  number 
of  prominent  Republicans  paid  Moses  S.  Beach  $175,000 
for  the  New  York  Sun  and  made  Dana  editor-in-chief. 
From  that  time  on  he  was  a  national  figure,  not  always 
of  the  greatest  influence,  but  never  in  obscurity. 

2  O'Brien,  Story  of  the  Sun,  215. 


EDITORS  OF  THE  NEW  SCHOOL  339 

During, Grant's  first  administration  Dana  became,  to 
the  surprise  of  many,  a  bitter  critic  of  the  President. 
This  was  generally  ascribed  to  the  fact  that  Grant  had 
not  appointed  him  Collector  of  the  Port  of  New  York, 
a  position  for  which  he  had  been  urged  by  his  friends. 
His  attack  on  the  President  began  with  the  bestowal  of 
public  offices  in  reward  for  campaign  contributions.  But 
he  went  further  and  practically  accused  the  President  of 
being  responsible  for  the  corruption  of  the  public  services. 
He  declared  that  Grant  had  *'  done  more  to  destroy  in  the 
public  mind  all  distinction  between  right  and  wrong,  to 
make  it  appear  that  the  great  object  of  life  and  the  chief 
purpose  of  official  authority  is  to  acquire  riches,  and  that 
it  makes  no  difference  by  what  means  this  object  is  at- 
tained. Had  Grant  been  a  pure  man  of  high  moral  sense, 
a  delicate  feeling  of  honesty,  and  a  just  conscience,  his 
example,  his  influence,  and  his  power  would  long  since 
have  sufficed  to  turn  back  the  rising  tide  of  corruption 
and  to  rescue  the  government  from  the  dangerous  evils 
with  which  it  was  struggling." 

He  accused  the  President  of  having  twenty-four  rela- 
tives holding  office,  and  as  an  evidence  of  the  corruption 
in  Washington  he  obtained  and  printed  a  letter,  a  phrase 
of  which  rapidly  became  the  shibboleth  of  corruption;  it 
was  as  follows  : — 

Treasury  Department  of  Pennsylvania, 

Harrisburg,  March,  1867. 
My  Dear  Titian, —  Allow  me  to  introduce  to  you  my  particular 
friend  Mr.  George  O.  Evans.  He  has  a 
claim  of  some  magnitude  that  he  wishes 
you  to  help  him  in.  Put  him  through  as 
you  would  me.  He  understands  Addition, 
Division,  and  Silence. 
"  To  Titian  J.  Coffey,  Esq.,  Yours, 

Washington,  D.  C."  "  W.  H.  Kemble."  » 

3  Wilson,  Life  of  Charles  A.  Dana,  427. 


340  HISTORY  OF  JOURNALISM 

The  attitude  of  Charles  A.  Dana  towafd  the  corrupt 
poHtical  boss  of  New  York  City,  William  M.  Tweed, 
has  been  defended  by  the  historian  of  his  paper  on  the 
ground  that  Dana's  support  of  Tweed  was  satirical.^ 
The  paper  on  December  7,  1870,  printed  a  short  announce- 
ment of  the  fact  that  ten  cents  had  been  sent  in  to  start 
a  monument  for  Tweed  and  a  semi-sarcastic  editorial  en- 
dorsement of  the  proposal.  Tweed  himself  was  obliged 
to  order  the  money  that  had  been  collected  to  be  returned, 
but  the  fact  that  a  considerable  sum  had  been  contributed 
would  indicate  that  a  great  many  people  had  failed  to 
appreciate  the  joke  of  Dana,  and  were  taking  it  seriously. 
Two  such  serious  students  as  Gustavus  Myers  and  Dr. 
Henry  Van  Dyke  construed  the  Dana  support  of  the 
Tweed  statue  proposal  as  serious.  There  was  not  in 
Dana's  ridicule  of  Tweed  any  of  the  relentless  attitude 
that  he  showed  in  his  attack  on  President  Grant;  and  it 
was  for  this  reason  that  he  lost  friends. 

What  Dana  said  about  journalism  was  always  acute 
and  always  sound.  When  shortly  after  Greeley's  death  he 
was  being  criticized  throughout  the  country  for  the  man- 
ner in  which  he  had  supported  Greeley's  nomination  for 
the  presidency,  Dana  spoke  of  the  profession  which  none 
knew  better  than  he  and  incidentally  spoke  of  himself. 

"  A  great  deal  of  twaddle  is  uttered  by  some  country 
newspapers  just  now  over  what  they  call  personal  journal- 
ism. They  say  that  now  that  Mr.  Bennett,  Mr.  Ray- 
mond, and  Mr.  Greeley  are  dead,  the  day  for  personal 
journalism  is  gone  by  and  that  impersonal  journalism 
will  take  its  place.  That  appears  to  mean  a  sort  of  jour- 
nalism in  which  nobody  will  ask  who  is  the  editor  of  a 
paper  or  the  writer  of  any  class  of  article,  and  nobody 
will  care. 

*  O'Brien,  Story  of  the  Sun. 


EDITORS  OF  THE  NEW  SCHOOL  341 

"  Whenever,  in  the  newspaper  profession,  a  man  rises 
up  who  is  original,  strong,  and  bold  enough  to  make  his 
opinions  a  matter  of  consequence  to  the  public,  there  will 
be  personal  journalism;  and  whenever  newspapers  are 
conducted  only  by  commonplace  individuals  whose  views 
are  of  no  consequence  to  anybody,  there  will  be  nothing 
but  impersonal  journalism."  ^ 

There  was  nothing  erratic  about  Dana  personally. 
The  men  who  knew  him  not  only  admired  but  loved  him. 
He  had  none  of  Greeley's  passion  for  reform  and  al- 
though he  was  perhaps  a  more  profound  student  than 
Godkin  he  had  rather  a  disdain  for  the  seriousness  with 
which  Godkin  and  his  associates  viewed  life.  He  was 
accused  of  not  having  a  high  moral  outlook;  he  retaliated 
by  expressing  his  abhorrence  of  sham. 

It  is  a  strange  thing  that  this  man  who  had  such  a 
genius  for  journalism  should  have  arrived  so  late  in  life, 
but  the  answer  probably  is  that  he  loved  his  books  and 
loved  culture  more  than  he  really  loved  success. 

Dana's  judgment  of  personal  journalism  was  more  than 
justified  by  the  career  of  the  men  who  succeeded  the  three 
great  personal  journalists,  Greeley,  Raymond  and  Ben- 
nett. 

The  younger  Bennett,  as  he  was  called,  has  but  recently 
died.  It  is  interesting  that  he  made  his  paper  the  organ 
—  as  far  as  there  could  be  an  organ  —  of  the  very  people 
who  had  so  publicly  expressed  their  contempt  for  his 
father  and  the  New  York  Herald.  If  the  paper  had  a 
fatal  defect  as  a  journal  it  was  this  very  catering  to  the 
vanity  of  snobocracy.  It  was  the  younger  Bennett's  own 
weakness.  He  cluttered  the  office  of  the  Paris  Herald 
with  useless  and  impoverished  nobility  and  in  the  desire  to 
make  a  *'  gentleman's  "  paper  he  treated  the  news  from 

^  New  York  Sun,  December  6,  1872. 


342  HISTORY  OF  JOURNALISM 

an  angle  that  frequently  produced  disproportions.  His 
own  vanity  led  him  to  the  most  Quixotic  measures  such 
as  ordering  the  omission  of  the  Russian  Emperor's  name 
from  the  paper  because  of  some  personal  affront.  The 
"  personal  column,"  on  account  of  which  he  narrowly 
escaped  being  sent  to  prison,  showed  how  far  his  sojourn 
in  Paris  had  led  him  away  from  healthy  American 
opinion.® 

The  immediate  successor  of  Raymond  was  his  partner, 
George  Jones,  under  whom  the  Times  became  a  power, 
particularly  in  municipal  affairs,  when  it  was  the  instru- 
ment by  which  the  corruption  of  W.  M.  Tweed  was  ex- 
posed. For  a  period  it  lost  its  influence,  but  later  it  came 
under  the  ownership  of  Adolph  S.  Ochs,  by  whom  it  has 
been  developed  as  a  conservative  but  enterprising  journal, 
one  of  the  most  widely  read  in  the  country. 

The  success  of  Whitelaw  Reid  more  than  justified  the 
statement  of  the  editor  of  the  Sun.  Reid  had  hardly 
assumed  control  of  the  Tribune  when  he  was  offered  in 
1878  the  appointment  of  Minister  to  Germany,  an  honor 
far  greater  than  any  that  ever  came  within  the  grasp  of 
Greeley,  and  an  honor  that  he  was  wise  enough  to  decline. 
It  was  repeated  within  a  few  years  and  again  he  declined. 
He  afterward  became  a  candidate  for  Vice-President  of 
the  United  States,  without  one-tenth  of  the  effort  that 
Greeley  made  to  obtain  a  nomination  as  Lieutenant-Gov- 
ernor of  the  State  of  New  York.  He  was  made  Am- 
bassador to  France,  he  died  Ambassador  to  Great  Britain, 
and  his  body  was  brought  home  under  escort  of  the  bat- 
tleships of  two  nations. 

What  Reid,  Jones,  Bennett,  Jr.,  and  Dana  realized  more 
than  others  of  their  day,  and  what  the  later  comers,  Pulit- 
zer and  Hearst,  also  recognized,  was  the  fact  that  not 
•  Sec  appendix,  Note  G. 


EDITORS  OF  THE  NEW  SCHOOL  343 

$0  much  the  views  of  the  editors  as  the  news  that  the 
papers  contained  would  sell  papers,  and  all  of  them  made 
their  papers  successful  by  fitting  their  publications  to  the 
spirit  of  the  times.  It  is  this  understanding  that  has 
made  Ochs,  the  present  owner  of  the  Times,  the  proprie- 
tor of  possibly  the  most  successful  paper,  financially,  in 
the  country,  exclusive  of  the  Chicago  Tribune. 

Credit  has  been  given  to  Godkin  of  the  Post  and  Dana 
of  the  Sun  for  their  influence  on  the  journalism  of  the 
country;  it  would  be  an  injustice  to  Whitelaw  Reid  to 
fail  to  point  out  the  credit  due  to  him  for  the  liberalizing 
influence  which  the  Tribune  had  on  the  American  press, 
both  during  the  w^ar,  when  he  was  managing  editor  under 
Greeley,  and  after  he  had  become  the  chief  owner.  As  did 
Bowles  and  the  Springfield  Republican,  Reid  set  a  stand- 
ard for  the  politically  independent  paper  and  showed  that 
it  could  not  only  live,  but  that  it  could  lead.  The  Chi- 
cago Tribune,  Cincinnati  Commercial  and  the  Louisville 
Courier  Journal  were  papers  that  breathed  the  same  spirit. 
Later,  it  is  true,  Reid  made  the  Tribune  the  organ  of  the 
Republican  party,  but  it  was  a  chastened  and  refreshed 
Republican  party  and  the  independence  he  had  shown  in 
the  time  referred  to  had  its  effect  on  the  growth  of 
American  independent  journalism. 

Of  the  personal  journalism  that  Dana  said  was  bound 
to  arrive  whenever  the  newspaper  had  back  of  it  a 
strong  figure,  no  greater  exemplar  could  have  been  con- 
ceived than  another  journalist  who  rose  contemporane- 
ously with  Reid,  Henry  Watterson  of  the  Louisville 
Courier-Journal,  the  successor  of  George  D.  Prentice. 

No  journalist,  no  individual,  in  the  country  has  done 
so  much  since  the  Civil  War  to  bring  about  a  better  un- 
derstanding between  the  North  and  the  South. "^     No  one 

^  Had  he  lived,   Henry  W.  Grady,  of  the  Atlanta  CoKStitution, 


344  HISTORY  OF  JOURNALISM 

was  better  fitted  for  the  task  and  he  has  for  years  been 
the  ''  Well-Beloved  "  of  the  profession,  endeared  to  many 
who  opposed  him  politically.  He  was  one  of  those  ar- 
dent journalists  who  led  the  liberal  movement  in  1872 
and  he  has  since  been  a  leader,  and  nearly  always  a  liberal. 
His  recently  published  reminiscences  have  shed  new  light 
on  that  interesting  time.  Watterson,  Samuel  Bowles  of 
the  Springfield  Republican,  Horace  White  of  the  Chicago 
Tribune  and  Murat  Halstead  of  the  Cincinnati  Commer- 
cial were  the  men  who  ran  the  national  convention  in 
that  year.  With  Carl  Schurz  they  formed  a  combination 
to  control  the  nominations.  Whitelaw  Reid  was  present 
as  a  representative  of  Horace  Greeley  and  the  Tribune, 
and  when  he  heard  of  the  ''  combine  "  he  insisted  that  the 
Tribune  should  be  admitted. 

Watterson  urged  Reid's  admission,  on  the  ground  that 
Greeley  never  would  be  considered  as  a  candidate,  and  the 
seemingly  ingenuous  and  very  polite  young  man  from 
N€w  York  was  taken  into  camp.  As  a  matter  of  fact, 
as  he  wrote  in  later  years,  Reid  knew  full  well  what  he 
was  doing ;  it  later  proved  to  be  themselves  and  not  Reid 
that  had  been  taken  in,  for  Greeley  was  nominated. 

The  combination  took  to  itself  much  credit  for  the  for- 
mation of  the  convention,  although  outside  of  the  circle 
were  many  men  of  influence  and  power,  men  of  the  type 
of  Alexander  K.  McClure  of  the  Philadelphia  Times,  an 
ardent  supporter  and  friend  of  Lincoln  during  the  war, 
and  one  of  the  most  insistent  of  the  reformers  who 
brought  about  the  liberal  movement. 

Watterson  is  now  eighty  years  of  age.  He  is  one  of 
the  few  men  living  who  knew  the  great  men  of  the  coun- 
try before  the  Civil  War;  he  is  the  only  great  editor  who 

would  undoubtedly  have  been  not  only  one  of  the  great  editors  of 
the  country  but  one  of  its  leading  statesmen. 


EDITORS  OF  THE  NEW  SCHOOL  345 

was  friendly  with  the  giants  of  that  time.  He  has  loved 
his  profession,  he  has  dignified  it,  it  is  as  much  indebted 
to  him  as  he  is  to  it.  He  speaks  therefore  of  the  mis- 
sion of  journalism  with  authority. 

*'  Assuming  journalism  equally  with  medicine  and  law 
to  be  a  profession,"  he  writes,  "  it  is  the  only  one  of  the 
three  in  which  versatility  is  not  a  disadvantage.  Special- 
ism at  the  bar  or  by  the  bedside  leads  to  perfection  and 
attains  results.  The  great  doctor  is  the  great  surgeon  or 
the  great  prescriptionist  —  he  cannot  be  great  in  both  — 
and  the  great  lawyer  is  rarely  great,  if  ever,  as  counselor 
and  advocate. 

"  The  great  editor  is  by  no  means  the  great  writer,  but 
he  ought  to  be  able  to  write  and  must  be  a  judge  of  writ- 
ing. The  newspaper  office  is  a  little  kingdom.  The  able 
editor  needs  to  know  and  does  know  every  range  of  it 
between  the  editorial  room,  the  composing  room  and  the 
pressroom.  He  must  hold  well  in  hand  everybody  and 
every  function,  having  risen,  as  it  were,  step  by  step 
from  the  ground  floor  to  the  roof.  He  should  be  level- 
headed yet  impressionable ;  sympathetic  yet  self-possessed ; 
able  quickly  to  sift,  detect  and  discriminate;  of  varied 
knowledge,  experience  and  interest ;  the  cackle  of  the  adja- 
cent barnyard  the  noise  of  the  world  to  his  eager  mind 
and  pliant  ear.  Nothing  too  small  for  him  to  tackle, 
nothing  too  great,  he  should  keep  to  the  middle  of  the  road 
and  well  in  rear  of  the  moving  columns ;  loving  his 
art  —  for  such  it  is  —  for  art's  sake ;  getting  his  suf- 
ficiency, along  with  its  independence,  in  the  public  ap- 
proval and  patronage,  seeking  never  anything  further  for 
himself.  Disinterestedness  being  the  soul  of  successful 
journalism,  unselfish  devotion  to  the  noble  purpose  in 
public  and  private  life,  he  should  say  to  preferment  as 
to  bribery,  '  Get  behind  me,  Satan.' 


346  HISTORY  OF  JOURNALISM 

"  Whitelaw  Reid,  to  take  a  ready  and  conspicuous  ex- 
ample, was  a  great  journalist;  but  rather  early  in  life  he 
abandoned  journalism  for  office  and  became  a  figure  in 
politics  and  diplomacy  so  that,  as  in  the  case  of  Franklin, 
whose  example  and  footsteps  in  the  main  he  followed,  he 
will  be  remembered  rather  as  the  ambassador  than  as  the 
editor. 

"  More  and  more  must  these  requirements  be  fulfilled 
by  the  aspiring  journalist.  As  the  world  passes  from  the 
rule  of  force  —  force  of  prowess,  force  of  habit,  force  of 
convention  —  to  the  rule  of  numbers,  the  daily  journal 
is  destined,  if  it  survives  as  a  power,  to  become  the  teacher 
—  the  very  Bible  of  the  people.  The  people  are  already 
beginning  to  distinguish  between  the  wholesome  and  the 
meretricious  in  their  newspapers.  Newspaper  owners 
likewise  are  beginning  to  realize  the  value  of  character. 
Instances  might  be  cited  where  the  public,  discerning  some 
sinister  but  unseen  power  behind  its  press,  has  slowly  yet 
surely  withdrawn  its  confidence  and  support.  However 
impersonal  it  pretends  to  be,  with  whatever  of  mystery  it 
affects  to  envelop  itself,  this  public  insists  upon  some  visi- 
ble presence.  In  many  states  the  law  requires  it.  Thus 
personal  journalism  cannot  be  escaped  and  whether  the 
one-man  power  emanates  from  the  counting  room  or  the 
editorial  room,  as  they  are  called,  it  must  be  clear  and  an- 
swerable, responsive  to  the  common  weal,  and,  above  all, 
trustworthy." 


CHAPTER  XXVI 

AFTER-WAR  PROBLEMS  AND  REFORM 

Direct  part  of  newspapers  in  government  —  E.  L.  Godkin  — 
Editor  of  Nation  —  Real  power  —  Fitness  of  Post  as  an  in- 
fluence for  good  —  Criticism  of  Godkin  —  His  pessimism  — 
Contrast  with  early  writings  —  Bryce's  opinion  —  William 
Rockhill  Nelson  —  Kansas  City  Star  —  Their  extensive  influ- 
ence — "  In  His  Spirit." 

The  war  left  many  newspapers  in  a  stronger  position 
than  before  the  struggle ;  the  power  wielded  by  the  impor- 
tant journalists  had  established  their  right  to  be  heard  and 
had  set  a  standard  of  conduct  for  those  who  were  to  come 
after.  Newspapers  were  hereafter  to  play  a  direct  part 
in  government  through  their  influence  on  those  extra- 
constitutional  forces,  the  political  parties.  There  had 
been,  it  is  true,  a  Greeley,  a  Weed,  a  Medill  and  a 
Forney ;  now  there  was  not  a  state  —  perhaps  but  few 
counties  —  where  the  political  policy  was  not  inspired  by 
some  active  editor  or  owner.  The  political  organization 
without  its  organ  was  an  anomaly;  what  became  neces- 
sary was  the  paper  that  would  fight  the  political  organ. 

The  paper  with  the  largest  circulation  was  necessarily 
the  most  influential,  and  the  larger  circulation  generally 
meant  afliliation  with  the  dominant  party.  These  facts, 
together  with  the  increased  cost  of  manufacturing  a  news- 
paper, would  tend  toward  a  purely  commercial  morality, 
were  it  not  for  the  check  that  Hes  in  the  newspaper  of 
small  circulation  but  stiff  idealism. 

The  part  in  politics  played  by  such  editors  as  Greeley, 

347 


348  HISTORY  OF  JOURNALISM 

Prentice,  Rhett,  Raymond,  Medill  or  Weed,  was  not  con- 
genial to  all  men;  aside  from  their  ability  or  inclination 
to  take  such  an  active  interest  in  politics,  newspapers  had 
become  such  large  business  undertakings  that  concen- 
tration on  their  own  interests  was  imperative.  Particu- 
larly was  this  the  case  with  the  men  best  fitted  and  in- 
clined to  edit  conservative  journals. 

From  the  close  of  the  Civil  War  to  the  end  of  the 
nineteenth  century  the  leading  conservative  editor  of  the 
country  was  Edwin  Lawrence  Godkin,  declared  by 
Rhodes  to  be  one  of  the  greatest  editors  of  this  country, 
and  by  Bryce  to  be  one  of  the  greatest  editors  of  the 
world. 

"  To  my  generation,"  declared  William  James,  *'  God- 
kin  was  certainly  the  towering  influence  in  all  thought 
concerning  public  affairs,  and  indirectly  his  influence  has 
certainly  been  more  pervasive  than  that  of  any  other 
writer  of  the  generation,  for  he  influenced  other  writers 
who  never  quoted  him,  and  determined  the  whole  cur- 
rent of  discussion." 

"  When  the  work  of  this  century  is  summed  up,"  wrote 
Charles  Elliot  Norton  to  Godkin,  "  what  you  have  done 
for  the  good  old  cause  of  civilization,  the  cause  which 
is  always  defeated,  but  always  after  defeat  taking  more 
advanced  position  than  before  —  what  you  have  done  for 
this  cause  will  count  for  much."  —  **  I  am  conscious," 
wrote  President  Eliot  of  Harvard  to  Godkin,  "  that  the 
Nation  has  had  a  decided  effect  on  my  opinions  and  my 
action  for  nearly  forty  years;  and  I  believe  it  has  had  a 
like  effect  on  thousands  of  educated  Americans."  ^ 

These  were  the  opinions  of  men  of  deep  feeling  and 
fine  intellect,  and  they  encouraged  Godkin  in  a  work 
which,  as  he  said  himself,  was  difficult  because  he  knew 

1  Rhodes,  Historical  Essays,  270  271. 


AFTER-WAR  PROBLEMS  AND  REFORM        349 

he  was  making  himself  odious  to  a  large  mass  of  people. 
It  was  a  hew  and  strange  road  in  journalism.  It  was 
an  absolutely  unheard-of  road  in  a  democracy;  a  road 
that  had  its  dangers,  as  was  shown  in  the  case  of  one  of 
Mr.  Godkin's  associates  on  the  Nation,  who  so  confused 
unpopularity  with  success,  that  every  time  the  Nation  lost 
a  subscriber  he  chortled  with  glee. 

Godkin  was  born  in  Ireland  and  was  educated  at 
Queen's  College,  Belfast,  during  a  time  when  the  philos- 
ophy of  John  Stuart  Mill  and  Jeremy  Bentham  was 
in  the  ascendant,  a  fact  that  explains  many  of  his  own 
tendencies.  After  serving  as  correspondent  to  the  Lon- 
don Daily  News  in  the  Crimean  War,  he  came  to  America 
and,  during  the  last  three  years  of  the  Civil  War,  was  the 
correspondent  of  the  same  paper. 

For  sixteen  years,  it  was  as  the  editor  of  the  Nation 
that  he  was  making  his  mark  in  the  country,  but  it  is  as 
the  editor  of  the  Evening  Post,  with  which  the  Nation 
was  merged,  that  he  will  be  best  remembered. 

The  Nation  was  started  in  1865  and  merged  with  the 
Post  in  188 1,  Godkin  becoming  associate  editor  of  that 
paper  with  Carl  Schurz  as  editor-in-chief.  Two  years 
later  Schurz  retired  and  Godkin  became  editor-in-chief, 
a  position  in  which  he  remained  until  1900,  when  he 
retired  because  of  failing  health.  During  that  time  the 
Evening  Post  was  one  of  the  world's  famous  newspapers ; 
it  was  the  leader  in  "  reform  "  in  the  United  States. 

Godkin  rose  to  real  power  at  a  time  when  looseness 
of  political  thinking  marked  journalism.  At  the  root  of 
much  of  the  corruption  of  the  times  was  unquestionably 
the  spoils  system,  its  sponsors  grown  arrogant  through 
the  fact  that,  as  the  Democratic  party  was  discredited, 
the  nation  was  under,  not  a  two-party,  but  a  one-party 
government. 


350  HISTORY  OF  JOURNALISM 

There  had  been,  too,  a  slipping  away  from  the  common 
standards  of  honesty.  The  growth  of  the  large  corpora- 
tion and  the  rise  of  public  utilities  had  given  political 
power  a  financial  value  hitherto  unknown.  The  ten- 
dency was  to  apply  material  rather  than  moral  standards ; 
to  ask,  ''  What  has  he?  "  rather  than  "  What  is  he?  "  A 
nation-wide  influence  for  good  was  sadly  needed. 

The  Evening  Post  was  a  paper  fitted  to  be  such  a  na- 
tional influence.  It  had  been  founded  as  a  conservative 
organ;  the  men  who  had  edited  or  controlled  it  from  its 
inception  had  been  men  who,  if  not  followers  of  Hamilton 
politically,  agreed  with  him  in  viewing  with  distaste  the 
"  excesses  "  of  journalism.  Some  of  these  conservatives, 
in  the  old  days,  were  robust  men  —  Coleman  for  instance 
or  Bryant,  who  carried  constructive  criticism  to  the  point 
of  belaboring  W.  L.  Stone,  the  editor  of  the  Commercial 
Advertiser,  over  the  head  with  a  cane.  But  no  paper  in 
America  was  better  fitted  for  the  work  in  hand. 

It  is  unquestionably  true,  as  William  James  says,  that 
Godkin  influenced  the  men  who  wrote  editorials  more  than 
any  other  individual  in  the  country.  On  the  other  hand 
it  was  also  said  by  intellectual  men  that  he  was  not  always 
fair  in  his  criticism  of  those  men  and  measures  that  he 
did  not  favor,  and  that  "  he  was  apt  to  convey  the  idea 
that  if  any  one  differed  from  him  on  a  vital  question,  like 
the  tariff,  or  finance,  or  civil  service  reform,  he  was 
necessarily  a  bad  man."  ^ 

It  was  this  tendency  that  led  many  to  believe  that  his 
influence  on  the  intelligent  youths  of  the  country  was  not 
for  the  best,  and  he  was  blamed  for  painting  the  condi- 
tion of  the  country  and  of  politics  as  so  bad  that  the 
one  was  not  worth  while  entering  and  the  other  was  not 
worth  while  saving.  The  result  was  that  many  educated 
2  Historical  Essays,  2y6. 


AFTER-WAR  PROBLEMS  AND  REFORM        351 

young  men  avoided  politics,  considering  themselves  su- 
perior to  those  who  took  an  interest  in  their  country's 
v^elfare. 

His  influence  was  as  potent  in  the  West  as  in  the  East. 
Many  were  the  strong  and  able  men  who  owed  to  him 
their  interest  and  activity  in  favor  of  civil  service  reforms, 
their  ideas  on  *'  sound  "  money,  their  belief  in  free  trade, 
and  their  interest  in  a  clean  city  government.  These 
were  his  main  teachings,  and  he  taught  them  with  a  vigor 
and  distinction  of  expression  that  led  James  Bryce  to 
say  that  the  Nation  was  not  only  the  best  publication  of 
its  kind  in  America,  but  the  best  in  the  world.  On  the 
other  hand  it  was  said  that  he  never  *'  made  a  retraction 
or  rectification  of  personal  charges  shown  to  be  incor- 
rect." ^  When  General  Francis  A.  Walker  died  in  1897, 
Godkin  refused  even  to  notice  his  funeral  in  the  Nation, 
although  W^alker  was  one  of  the  distinguished  economists 
of  the  country,  because  the  two  had  taken  opposite  sides 
on  the  gold  question  in  1896. 

In  the  latter  part  of  his  life  the  inevitable,  or  rather 
what  might  be  expected  of  a  disciple  of  Bentham,  hap- 
pened. He  became  a  thorough  pessimist  and  regarded  the 
democratic  experiment  in  America  as  a  hopeless  failure. 
He  returned  to  England,  despairing  entirely  of  America, 
and,  writing  to  Charles  Eliot  Norton,  said : 

*'  But  the  situation  to  me  seems  this :  An  immense  de- 
mocracy, mostly  ignorant,  and  completely  secluded  from 
foreign  influences,  and  without  any  knowledge  of  other 
states  of  society,  with  great  contempt  for  history  and  ex- 
perience, finds  itself  in  possession  of  enormous  power  and 
is  eager  to  use  it  in  brutal  fashion  against  any  one  who 
comes  along,  without  knowing  hozv  to  do  it,  and  is  there- 
fore constantly  on  the  brink  of  some  frightful  catastrophe 

3  Rhodes,  282. 


352  HISTORY  OF  JOURNALISM 

like  that  which  overtook  France  in  1870.  The  spectacle 
of  our  financial  condition  and  legislation  during  the  last 
twenty  years,  the  general  silliness  and  credulity  begotten 
by  the  newspapers,  the  ferocious  optimism  exacted  of  all 
teachers  and  preachers,  and  the  general  belief  that  we  are 
a  peculiar  or  chosen  people  to  whom  the  experiences  of 
other  people  is  of  no  use,  make  a  pretty  dismal  picture, 
and,  I  confess,  rather  reconcile  me  to  the  fact  that  my 
career  is  drawing  to  a  close.  I  know  how  many  things 
may  be  pointed  out  as  signs  of  genuine  progress,  but  they 
are  not  in  the  field  of  government.  Our  two  leading 
powers,  the  legislature  and  the  press,  have  to  my  knowl- 
edge been  running  down  for  thirty  years.  The  present 
crisis  is  really  a  fight  between  the  rational  business  men 
and  the  politicians  and  the  newspapers,  and  the  rational 
business  men  are  not  getting  the  best  of  it. 

"  The  press  is  the  worst  feature  of  the  situation,  and 
yet  the  press  would  not  be  what  it  is  without  a  public 
demand  for  it  as  it  is.  I  have  been  having  cuttings  about 
the  present  situation  sent  in  to  me  from  all  quarters,  and 
anything  more  silly,  ignorant,  and  irational  you  could  not 
imagine.  I  am  just  now  the  object  of  abuse,  and  the 
abuse  is  just  what  you  would  hear  in  a  barroom  row. 
You  are  lucky  in  being  a  professor,  and  not  obliged  to 
say  anything  about  public  affairs  except  when  you  please. 
I  have  had  a  delightful  and  characteristic  letter  from  Wil- 
liam James  urging  me  not  '  to  curse  God  and  die,'  but  to 
keep  on  with  *  the  campaign  of  education.'  "  * 

With  the  Spanish  War  he  lost  all  hope  of  the  American 
people  ever  retrieving  themselves.  It  is  unfair,  however, 
in  judging  the  great  work  that  Godkin  did,  to  be  in- 
fluenced by  this  later  pessimism.  It  was  his  belief  in 
American  institutions,  as  he  expressed  it  in  a  letter  to 
*  Ogden,  Life  of  E.  L.  Godkin,  ii,  202,  203. 


AFTER-WAR  PROBLEMS  AND  REFORM        353 

the  London  Daily  News  in  1868,  that  made  possible  all 
his  achievements  as  well  as  the  great  influence  that  he 
acquired.  Later  in  life  he  met  with  disappointments, — 
intellectual  disappointments  in  his  case;  for  he  was  too 
sincere  in  his  nature  to  seek  political  office, —  and  those 
intellectual  disappointments  acted  on  him  as  disappoint- 
ments of  other  varieties  acted  on  other  great  journalists 
—  they  soured  him  and  made  him  appear  a  man  without 
faith  and  without  belief. 

The  good  that  he  did  was  not  accomplished  when  he 
was  bereft  of  the  enthusiasm  that  moves  men,  but  rather 
when  he  felt  as  he  did  in  1868,  shortly  after  the  Civil 
War;  incidentally  the  country  was  then  facing  far  more 
serious  conditions  than  it  faced  when  Godkin  was  so 
doleful. 

"  There  is  no  careful  and  intelligent  observer,"  he 
wrote,  "  whether  he  be  a  friend  to  democracy  or  not,  who 
can  help  admiring  the  unbroken  power  with  which  the 
popular  common  sense  —  that  shrewdness,  or  intelligence, 
or  instinct  of  self-preservation,  I  care  not  what  you  call  it, 
which  so  often  makes  the  American  farmer  a  better  poli- 
tician than  nine- tenths  of  the  best  read  European  philoso- 
phers—  works  under  all  this  tumult  and  confusion  of 
tongues.  The  newspapers  and  politicians  fret  and  fume 
and  shout  and  denounce ;  but  the  great  mass,  the  nineteen 
or  twenty  millions,  work  away  in  the  fields  and  work- 
shops, saying  little,  thinking  much,  hardy,  earnest,  self- 
reliant,  very  tolerant,  very  indulgent,  very  shrewd,  but 
ready  whenever  the  government  needs  it,  with  musket,  or 
purse  or  vote,  as  the  case  may  be,  laughing  and  cheer- 
ing occasionally  at  public  meetings,  but  when  you  meet 
them  individually  on  the  highroad  or  in  their  own  houses, 
very  cool,  then,  sensible  men,  filled  with  no  delusions,  car- 
ried away  by  no  frenzies,  believing  firmly  in  the  future 


354  HISTORY  OF  JOURNALISM 

greatness  and  glory  of  the  republic,  but  liolding  to  no 
other  article  of  faith  as  essential  to  political  salvation."  ^ 

Coming  when  he  did,  Godkin  was  a  tonic  as  well  as  an 
irritant.  One  of  the  causes  of  irritation  among  those 
who  had  to  contend  with  him  in  editorial  debate  was  the 
fact  that  he  was  a  foreigner,  but  this,  as  Bryce  says, 
gave  him  detachment  and  perspective.  It  is  for  the  great 
ability  that  he  had  and  for  his  great  influence  on  the 
younger  minds,  his  influence  against  corruption  and  for 
honesty  and  culture,  that  the  country  must  be  grateful. 

"  His  finished  criticism,"  says  Bryce,  "  his  exact  method, 
his  incisive  handling  of  economic  problems,  his  complete 
detachment  from  party,  helped  to  form  a  new  school  of 
journalists,  as  the  example  he  set  of  a  serious  and  lofty 
conception  of  an  editor's  duties  helped  to  add  dignity  to 
the  position.  He  had  not  that  disposition  to  enthrone  the 
press  which  made  a  great  English  newspaper  once  claim 
for  itself  that  it  discharged  in  the  modern  world  the  func- 
tions of  the  mediaeval  Church.  But  he  brought  to  his 
work  as  an  anonymous  writer  a  sense  of  responsibility 
and  a  zeal  for  the  welfare  of  his  country  which  no  minis- 
ter of  State  could  have  surpassed. 

"  His  friends  may  sometimes  have  wished  that  he  had 
more  fully  recognized  the  worth  of  sentiment  as  a  motive 
power  in  politics,  that  he  had  more  frequently  tried  to 
persuade  as  well  as  to  convince,  that  he  had  given  more 
credit  for  partial  installments  of  honest  service  and  for  a 
virtue  less  than  perfect,  that  he  had  dealt  more  leniently 
with  the  faults  of  the  good  and  the  follies  of  the  wise. 
Defects  in  these  respects  were  the  almost  inevitable  defects 
of  his  admirable  qualities,  of  his  passion  for  truth,  his 
hatred  of  wrong  and  injustice,  his  clear  vision,  his  in- 
domitable spirit. 

^  Rhodes,  287. 


AFTER-WAR  PROBLEMS  AND  REFORM        355 

"  Mr.  GQdkin  was  not  only  inaccessible  to  the  lures 
of  wealth  —  the  same  may  happily  be  said  of  many  of 
his  craft-brethren  —  he  was  just  as  little  accessible  to  the 
fear  of  public  displeasure.  Nothing  more  incensed  him 
than  to  see  a  statesman  or  an  editor  with  '  his  ear  to  the 
ground'  (to  use  an  American  phrase),  seeking  to  catch 
the  sound  of  the  coming  crowd.  To  him,  the  less  popu- 
lar a  view  was,  so  much  the  more  did  it  need  to  be  well 
weighed,  and  if  approved,  to  be  strenuously  and  incessant- 
ly preached.  Democracies  will  always  have  demagogues 
ready  to  feed  their  vanity  and  stir  their  passions  and  ex- 
aggerate the  feeling  of  the  moment.  What  they  need  is 
men  who  will  swim  against  the  stream,  will  tell  them 
their  faults,  will  urge  an  argument  all  the  more  forcibly 
because  it  is  unwelcome.  Such  a  one  was  Edwin  Godkin. 
Since  the  death  of  Abraham  Lincoln,  America  has  been 
generally  more  influenced  by  her  writers,  preachers,  and 
thinkers  than  by  her  statesmen.  In  the  list  of  those  who 
have  during  the  past  forty  years  influenced  her  for  good 
and  helped  by  their  pens  to  make  history,  a  list 
illustrated  by  such  names  as  those  of  R.  W.  Emerson 
and  Phillips  Brooks  and  James  Russell  Lowell,  his  name 
will  find  its  place  and  receive  its  well-earned  meed  of 
honor."  ^ 

By  no  possible  conception  could  his  life  be  called  a 
failure.  The  pessimism  of  his  later  years  was  not  due 
to  any  fault  of  his  adopted  country,  but  to  his  failure 
to  remain  youthful  in  spirit ;  a  failure  due,  in  turn,  to  the 
fact  that  he  had,  as  De  Quincey  says  of  Kant,  *'  no  faith, 
no  self-distrust,  no  humility,  no  child-like  docility." 
Men  to  be  right,  had  to  agree  with  him. 

That  spirit  was  against  the  very  idea  of  government 
by  public  opinion;  it  was  bound  to  breed  the  belief  that, 
6  Contemporary  Biography,  380,  381. 


) 


356  HISTORY  OF  JOURNALISM 


\. 


not  alone  the  country,  but  the  world,  had  gone  wrong. 
We,  who  have  traced  the  story  of  journalism,  know  that 
there  was  no  greater  cause  for  despair  at  the  time  that  he 
lived  and  was  active,  than  there  was  at  any  other  time 
in  the  history  of  the  nation.  He  was  undoubtedly  one 
of  the  great  editors  of  the  country,  but  he  had  less  trying 
times  to  face  than  either  of  his  notable  predecessors,  Bry- 
ant or  Coleman,  who  paved  the  way  for  him  and  his 
achievements.  Had  he  lived  to  see  the  Evening  Post  of 
to-day,  with  its  black  headlines,  he  would  have  despaired 
utterly  of  salvation  in  this  world  or  the  next,  yet  we 
know  that  these  things  are  comparatively  unimportant. 
His  dogmatism,  which  was  his  strength,  prevented  him 
from  seeing  things  in  true  relation,  and  from  realizing 
that  the  men  who  see  humanity  laid  open  and  at  its  worst, 
—  they  of  the  medical  profession, —  are  the  most  hope- 
ful and  the  men  most  marked  by  *'  faith,  self-distrust, 
humility  and  child-like  docility." 

We  find  a  healthier  view  of  reform  journalism  in  the 
West.  Never  was  the  spirit  of  the  liberal  and  reform 
movement  better  exemplified  than  in  the  case  of  the  Kan- 
sas City  Star,  founded  by  William  Rockhill  Nelson  at 
about  the  same  time  that  Godkin  took  over  the  Evening 
Post.  The  story  of  the  Star  was  really  that  of  hundreds 
of  newspapers  which,  under  the  inspiring  example  of  lead- 
ers in  the  profession,  refused  to  be  merely  the  organs 
of  party,  and  became, —  where  the  community  was  not 
large  enough  to  make  itself  heard  in  national  politics  — 
of  local  and  state-wide  power  for  political  and  civic  re- 
form and  for  the  betterment  of  the  community. 

Nelson  was  educated  for  the  law,  and  became  a  suc- 
cessful business  man;  he  was  attracted  to  politics  by  the 
spirit  of  the  day,  partly  through  his  acquaintance  with 
Samuel  J.  Tilden.     The  fight  against  the  Tweed  ring 


AFTER-WAR  PROBLEMS  AND  REFORM        357 

stirred  him,. and  the  failure  of  the  Democratic  party  to  re- 
nominate Tilden  in  1880  made  him  an  independent.  He 
was  the  owner  of  the  Fort  Wayne  Sentinel  when  he  de- 
cided to  embark  in  a  larger  field  and  selected  Kansas  City. 
The  Star  appeared  for  the  first  time  in  September,  1880, 
when  Kansas  City  was  the  muddiest  town  in  the  United 
States;  it  had  no  pavements  and  but  a  few  plank  side- 
walks. It  was  a  town  apparently  hopelessly  corrupt. 
Sunday  was  a  day  for  unlimited  drunkenness.  In  the 
very  first  election  that  took  place  after  the  paper  was 
started,  Nelson  served  notice  that  the  Star  was  out  for 
better  conditions : 

''  The  Star  has  no  ax  to  grind,  no  candidate  to  elect, 
no  party  to  serve.  Its  only  interest  is  in  the  growth  and 
prosperity  of  Kansas  City  and  the  proper  administration 
of  the  city  government.  It  is  for  the  best  men,  entirely 
regardless  of  party.  It  is,  however,  forced  to  admit  that 
most  of  the  men  who  are  seeking  nominations  from  both 
parties  are  utterly  unfit  for  the  positions  to  which  they 
aspire.  Briefless  barristers,  to  whom  no  sane  man  would 
entrust  a  lawsuit  involving  five  dollars,  w^ant  to  be  city 
attorney.  Irresponsible  and  incapable  men,  whom  no  one 
would  think  of  selecting  for  cashier  or  bookkeeper,  ask 
for  the  city  treasurership.  Ignorant  peddlers  of  whiskey 
aspire  to  the  city  council.  Such  of  these  men  who  seek 
nominations  may  expect  that  the  Star  will  tell  the  truth 
about  them.  The  voters  of  the  city  have  a  right  to  know 
all  the  facts  as  to  the  character  and  capacity  of  those  who 
ask  their  suffrage.  These  they  cannot  find  in  their  party 
organs."  "^ 

The  fight  that  followed  was  long  and  bitter,  but  Nelson 
won.     A  new  Kansas  City  took  the  place  of  the  one  with 
the  mud  streets  and  the  plank  walks,  and  it  was  said  of  the 
"^  The  Star,  March  10,  1881. 


35^  HISTORY  OF  JOURNALISM 

Star  that  not  a  situation  arose  in  the  affairs  of  the  city, 
"  the  location  of  a  park,  the  undertaking  of  public  works 
or  what  not,"  but  its  voice  was  always  potent  and  usually 
decisive.  In  fact,  the  Star  became  the  most  influential 
paper  between  the  Mississippi  and  the  Pacific.  Few  in- 
deed were  the  papers  or  the  editors  that  attained  to  such 
power  and  influence,  such  distinction  and  wealth,  as  did 
the  Star  and  Nelson;  throughout  the  country,  neverthe- 
less, many  men  were  inspired  to  follow  in  the  same  path, 
even  though  they  did  not  achieve  the  same  success.  On 
Nelson's  death  his  wife  and  his  daughter,  Mrs.  Kirkwood, 
dedicated  the  paper  to  the  people  of  Kansas  City 
*'  In  his  spirit."  The  editorial  signed  by  them  summar- 
ized well  the  attitude  of  the  great  majority  of  editors, 
those  in  whom  machine  politics  or  indifference  had  not 
entirely  deadened  the  sense  of  responsibility : 

"  The  Star  was  dedicated  by  Mr.  Nelson  to  great  pur- 
poses and  high  ideals  in  the  service  of  humanity  —  to 
honest  elections,  to  democratic  government,  to  the  aboli- 
tion of  special  privilege,  to  fair  dealings  on  the  part  of 
public  service  corporations,  to  larger  opportunities  for 
boys  and  girls,  to  progress  toward  social  and  industrial 
justice,  to  all  things  that  make  for  the  richer,  fuller  life 
that  he  coveted  passionately  for  every  man,  woman  and 
child. 

"  Particularly  was  it  dedicated  to  the  advancement  of 
Kansas  City.  Whatever  helped  the  city  the  Star  was 
for.  Whatever  hurt  the  city  the  Star  was  against.  For 
thirty-five  years  this  newspaper  had  warred  against  elec- 
tion thievery,  against  the  boss  rule,  against  grasping  cor- 
porations that  came  to  the  town  only  to  make  money  out 
of  it,  against  the  whole  brood  of  enemies  of  Kansas  City. 
There  has  been  no  citizen,  no  matter  what  his  station,  but 
has  known  that  if  he  came  forward  with  a  practical,  ef- 


AFTER-WAR  PROBLEMS  AND  REFORM        359 

ficient  plan  for  the  city's  benefit,  he  could  count  on  the 
heartiest  help  and  cooperation  of  the  Star. 

''  Those  to  whom  this  trusteeship  has  fallen  recognize 
the  heavy  responsibility  and  obligation  now  theirs.  In 
meeting  this  responsibility  and  this  obligation  they  are 
depending  on  his  associates  on  the  staff  who  are  in  com- 
plete sympathy  with  his  ideals,  and  who  will  have  the  ac- 
tive management  of  the  paper.  It  is  the  one  aim  of  the 
trustees  and  as'Sociates  alike  that  his  spirit  shall  direct 
the  Star's  policy,  and  that  it  shall  continue  to  fight,  as 
he  would  have  it  fight,  for  righteousness  and  justice  and 
the  common  good,  and  for  the  greater,  nobler  city  of  his 
dreams."  ^ 

^Biography  of  William  Rockhill  Nelson,  182,  183. 


CHAPTER  XXVII 

THE  MELODRAMA  IN  THE  NEWS 

Genius  of   Pulitzer  unappreciated  —  His  earlier  career  —  As- 
sociation with  Carl  Schurz  —  Buys  St.  Louis  Post-Dispatch 
—  Takes  over  New  York  World  —  Case  of  Judge  Maynard  — 
Bond  issue  of  1896  —  School  of  journaHsm  suggested  —  Criti- 
cism as  necessary  as  reform. 

What  was  said  of  Pulitzer  has  been  said  of  many 
other  editors  by  their  political  opponents.  Political  ad- 
versaries are  not  inclined  to  admit  that  rivals  may  be 
moved  by  equally  high  motives,  as  in  politics  an  admis- 
sion of  merit  in  an  opponent  is  frequently  considered  a 
strategical  mistake.  That  Pulitzer  was  out  to  sell  as 
many  papers  as  he  could,  no  matter  by  what  means,  was 
all  that  his  critics  could  see;  it  was  not  until  his  death 
that  some  of  his  conservative  critics  appreciated  that  he 
was  able  to  turn  his  initiative  and  genius  into  the  fields 
of  culture  that  they  had  held  particularly  their  own. 

Had  the  idea  of  an  academic  training  for  journalists 
come  from  a  college  man  or  from  one  of  the  conservative 
journalists,  it  would  doubtless  have  been  just  as  suc- 
cessful, but  it  would  have  been  less  characteristic  of  the 
history  of  journalism ;  a  history  which  abounds  in  curious 
human  developments,  in  revelations  of  beauty  of  charac- 
ter, like  those  the  wilderness  traveler  finds  in  unbeaten 
paths  and  deep  woodland  pools. 

Having  traced  the  developments  of  American  journal- 
ism from  its  very  beginning,  it  is  not  a  difficult  task  that 
confronts  us  when  we  come  to  analyze  what  was  called 
the  "  modern  journalism  "of  Joseph  Pulitzer. 

360 


THE  MELODRAMA  IN  THE  NEWS  361 

Pulitzer  did  only  what  was  inevitable.  In  his  desire 
to  achieve  the  greatest  influence  for  the  paper  that  he 
controlled,  he  reached  for  closer  contact,  between  the 
papers  and  the  people,  than  had  existed  up  to  his  time; 
it  was  his  genius  that  discovered  the  way  in  which  that 
might  be  done.  It  was  not  surprising,  viewed  in  the 
past  history  of  journalism,  that  in  so  doing  he  aroused 
the  adverse  criticism  of  the  conservatives. 

Great  as  was  the  impression  that  he  left  on  his  time, 
he  was  no  more  an  innovator  than  was  Greeley  with  his 
passion  for  reform  or  Bennett  with  his  sense  of  news; 
no  more  so  than  were  Freneau  and  Duane,  with  their 
recklessness  of  attack  on  the  very  head  of  the  government, 
and  other  men  —  some  forgotten  —  who,  in  their  turn, 
advanced  journalism  one  step  more,  and  thus  made  pos- 
sible, if  not  a  reputation  for  themselves,  at  least  power 
and  influence  for  those  who  were  to  come  after. 

The  career  of  Pulitzer,  a  poor  half-educated  idealist, 
was  much  like  that  of  Greeley.  Born  in  Hungary,  he 
was  absolutely  friendless  when  he  arrived  in  New  York, 
and  had  to  s-leep  in  City  Hall  Park,  though  later  a  fire- 
man allowed  him  to  sleep  in  a  furnished  room  at  French's 
Hotel  in  Park  Row.  Twenty  years  later  he  bought  this 
same  hotel  for  $68o,ocmd  and  tore  it  down  to  put  up  the 
present  World  Building.  In  1864  he  enlisted  as  a  private 
dragoon  in  the  First  New  York  Cavalry,  served  with  the 
Army  of  the  Shenandoah  until  peace  was  declared,  and 
was  then  honorably  discharged.  He  worked  at  menial 
occupations  in  order  to  escape  starvation,  but  never  lost 
faith  or  courage  and  never  wasted  an  opportunity  to  read 
and  study.  He  drifted  West,  obtained  a  position  on  the 
St.  Louis  Post, —  then  edited  by  Carl  Schurz  —  showed 
ability  as  a  speaker  and,  in  1869,  was  elected  a  member 
of  the  legislature  of  Missouri.     In  Jefferson  City,  while 


362  HISTORY  OF  JOURNALISM 

serving  in  the  Legislature,  he  was  attacked  by  a  political 
grafter,  and  shot  the  man.  He  put  his  savings  into  the 
Post,  and  in  1871  he  became  managing  editor  of  the  paper. 
He  was  one  of  the  organizers  of  the  Liberal  Republican 
movement  in  Missouri,  and  it  was  through  his  strategy 
that  Carl  Schurz  was  made  Chairman  of  the  Cincinnati 
Convention,  which  met  May  i,  1872,  and  nominated  Hor- 
ace Greeley  for  president. 

Schurz  refused  to  support  Greeley,  but  Pulitzer 
stumped  the  West  for  him  and  made  many  speeches  in 
his  behalf.  The  political  differences  between  himself  and 
Schurz  caused  him,  in  1875,  to  sell  his  interest  in  the 
Post;  following  this  he  acted  as  Washington  correspon- 
dent for  the  New  York  Sun,  returning  to  St.  Louis  in 
1878  and  buying  the  Evening  Dispatch  and  Evening  Post, 
which  he  issued  as  one  paper. 

His  success  with  the  St.  Louis  Post-Dispatch  was  such 
that  his  income  reached  $200,000  a  year.  He  was  but 
thirty-six  years  of  age,  yet  had  a  national  reputation  as  a 
public  speaker  and  editor.  He  was  about  to  go  abroad 
when  the  possibility  of  purchasing  the  New  York  World 
was  presented  to  him. 

In  the  days  of  his  association  with  Carl  Schurz  he  had 
been  a  radical  and  a  socialist.  Later  he  had  grown  more 
conservative,  but  he  was  still  in  a  frame  of  mind  to  be 
stirred  by  the  newspaper  condition  in  New  York,  a  con- 
dition epitomized  by  John  Bigelow,  one  of  the  editors  of 
the  New  York  Evening  Post,  when  he  declared  that  there 
were  too  many  newspapers  for  the  educated  class.  ^ 

Pulitzer  had  this  in  mind  when,  in  1883,  he  bought  the 

New  York  World,  and  instituted  what  his  contemporaries 

and  his  biographer  have  called  "  a  totally  new  system  of 

newspaper  conduct."     As  we  have  seen  however,  there 

^  George  Gary  Eggleston,  Recollections,  289. 


THE  MELODRAMA  IN  THE  NEWS  363 

was  nothing  extraordinary  in  the  system  that  PuHtzer  in- 
augurated. The  papers  which,  in  the  early  thirties,  had 
been  founded  for  the  purpose  of  catering  to  the  laboring 
classes  had  grown  staid  and  conservative.  A  new  gen- 
eration of  laboring  people  had  come  up,  several  of  them 
in  fact,  and  the  papers  that  were  supposed  to  appeal  to 
them,  appealed  rather  to  the  preceding  generation.  The 
Pulitzer  journalism  was,  therefore,  not  so  much  the  in- 
auguration of  a  new  system  as  the  re-birth  of  an  old 
one. 

The  appeal  to  the  laboring  or  semi-educated  classes 
was,  as  it  had  been  in  the  thirties,  immediately  successful ; 
as  had  been  the  case  with  the  first  penny  papers,  it  was 
demonstrated  that,  while  the  World  gained  in  circulation 
by  hundreds  of  thousands,  no  other  morning  paper  lost. 
The  conservative  morning  papers  that  looked  with  so 
much  horror  on  Pulitzer's  innovations  gradually  found, 
as  their  predecessors  had  found  in  the  case  of  the  penny 
papers  and  the  news  system  inaugurated  by  Bennett,  that 
by  adopting  some  of  his  methods  they  were  able  to  in- 
crease their  constituency. 

It  was  the  discovery  that  in  New  York, —  or,  for  that 
matter,  in  every  city  in  the  country  —  there  was  a  large 
uneducated  or  semi-educated  population  who  were  not 
reading  newspapers,  that  led  William  M.  Laffan,  then  a 
subordinate  on  the  S%m  and  later  the  proprietor  and  edi- 
tor of  that  paper,  to  bring  out,  on  March  17,  1887,  the 
Evening  Sim,  an  afternoon  paper  that  was  to  address  it- 
self, not  to  the  educated  class  but  to  those  less  fortunately 
conditioned.  Its  success  led  to  the  Evening  World ,  and 
to  an  entire  change  in  the  character  of  the  evening  papers 
of  the  country;  so  much  so  that  the  New  York  Evening 
Post,  with  its  great  traditions,  is  even  to-day  making, 
through  large  type  and  black  headlines,  the  same  appeal 


364  HISTORY  OF  JOURNALISM 

for  the  patronage  of  the  uneducated  that  the"^  Sun  and  the 
Evening  World  made  thirty  years  ago. 

We  gather  some  of  the  strength  of  the  PuHtzer  journal- 
ism, and  we  begin  to  understand  why  it  was  successful, 
when  we  read  some  of  his  instructions  to  his  editorial 
writers.  A  famous  case  in  the  history  of  the  New  York 
judiciary  was  that  of  Judge  Maynard,  who,  after  ques- 
tionable conduct  in  a  certain  election  proceeding,  came  up 
for  re-election  on  the  Democratic  ticket.  Mr.  Pulitzer, 
it  is  to  be  remembered,  was  a  Democrat.  Calling  in  his 
chief  editorial  writer,  George  Gary  Eggleston,  he  said  to 
him: 

'*  I  want  you  to  go  into  the  Maynard  case  with  an 
absolutely  unprejudiced  mind.  We  hold  no  briefs  for  or 
against  him,  as  you  know.  I  want  you  to  get  together 
all  the  documents  in  the  case.  I  want  you  to  take  them 
home  and  study  them  as  minutely  as  if  you  were  prepar- 
ing yourself  for  an  examination.  I  want  you  to  regard 
yourself  as  a  judicial  officer,  oath-bound  to  justice,  and 
when  you  shall  have  mastered  the  facts  and  the  law  in  the 
case,  I  want  you  to  set  them  forth  in  a  four  column  edi- 
torial that  every  reader  of  the  World  can  easily  under- 
stand." 

There  were  model  instructions.  They  are  the  prae- 
cepta  of  journalism  as  the  defender  and  upholder  of 
democracy. 

Another  illustration  of  his  large,  democratic  and  un- 
usual view  of  the  mission  of  journalism,  was  his  handling 
of  the  1896  bond  issue.  The  government  was  about  to 
sell  two  hundred  million  dollars  of  bonds  to  a  Wall  Street 
syndicate  at  104^,  when  it  was  demonstrated  that  the 
bonds  were  bringing  in  the  market  as  high  as  122.  Pulit- 
zer sent  for  the  heads  of  his  departments  and  the  head  of 
the  editorial  page  and  gave  them  rapid-fire  instructions, 


THE  MELODRAMA  IN  THE  NEWS  365 

in  which,  in  a  few  hundred  words,  the  entire  national 
campaign  was  outHned. 

"  We  have  made  our  case  in  this  matter  of  the  bond 
issue.  We  have  presented  the  facts  clearly,  convincingly, 
conclusively,  but  the  Administration  refuses  to  heed  them. 
We  are  now  going  to  compel  it  to  heed  them  on  pain  of 
facing  a  scandal  that  no  administration  could  survive. 

"  What  we  demand  is  that  these  bonds  shall  be  sold  to 
the  public  at  something  like  their  actual  value  and  not  to 
a  Wall  Street  syndicate  for  many  millions  less.  You 
understand  all  that.  You  are  to  write  a  double-leaded 
article  to  occupy  the  whole  editorial  space  to-morrow 
morning.  You  are  not  to  print  a  line  of  editorial  on  any 
other  subject.  You  are  to  set  forth,  in  compact  form  and 
in  the  most  effective  way  possible,  the  facts  of  the  case 
and  the  considerations  that  demand  a  popular  or  at  least 
a  public  loan  instead  of  this  deal  with  a  syndicate,  sug- 
gestive as  it  is  of  the  patent  falsehood  that  the  United 
States  Treasury's  credit  needs  *  financing.'  You  are  to 
declare,  with  all  possible  emphasis,  that  the  banks,  bank- 
ers, and  people  of  the  United  States  stand  ready  and  eager 
to  lend  their  government  all  the  money  it  wants  at  three 
per  cent,  interest,  and  to  buy  its  four  per  cent,  bonds  at 
a  premium  that  will  amount  to  that.  .  .  . 

"  Then  as  a  guarantee  of  the  sincerity  of  our  conviction 
you  are  to  say  that  the  World  offers  in  advance  to  take 
one  million  dollars  of  the  new  bonds  at  the  highest  mar- 
ket price,  if  they  are  offered  to  the  public  in  open  market. 

"  In  the  meanwhile,  Chamberlin  has  a  staff  of  men 
sending  out  dispatches  to  every  bank  and  banker  in  the 
land,  setting  forth  our  demand  for  a  public  loan  instead 
of  a  syndicate  dicker,  and  asking  each  for  what  amount  of 
the  new  bonds  it  or  he  will  subscribe  on  a  three  per  cent, 
basis.     To-morrow  morning's  papers  will  carry  with  your 


366  HISTORY  OF  JOURNALISM 

editorial  its  complete  confirmation  in  their  replies,  and 
the  proposed  loan  will  be  over-subscribed  on  a  three  per 
cent,  basis.  Even  Mr.  Cleveland's  phenomenal  self-con- 
fidence and  Mr.  Carlisle's  purblind  belief  in  Wall  Street 
methods  will  not  be  able  to  withstand  such  a  demonstra- 
tion as  that.  It  will  compel  a  public  loan.  If  it  is  true 
that  the  contract  with  the  syndicate  has  already  been 
made,  they  must  cancel  it.  The  voice  of  the  country 
will  be  heard  in  the  subscription  list  we  shall  print  to- 
morrow morning,  and  the  voice  of  the  country  has  com- 
pelling power,  even  under  this  excessively  self-confident 
administration."  ^ 

With  his  idealism  and  his  own  knowledge  of  the  suf- 
fering and  poverty  of  the  submerged  world  about  him, 
Joseph  Pulitzer  could  never  have  been  content  with  the 
mere  exploitation  of  the  news^  even  if  that  exploitation 
had  been,  financially,  twice  as  successful  as  it  proved  to 
be.  What  esentially  appealed  to  him  in  journalism  was 
its  opportunity  to  touch  the  heart;  because  he  was  a  sen- 
timentalist he  was  successful  in  arousing  public  interest 
and  establishing  his  papers  as  great,  powerful,  popular 
organs. 

He  could  not  see  things  calmly  and  philosophically  as 
could  Godkin,  but  he  could  express  in  his  own  way  his 
feelings  about  the  same  crimes.  So,  while  he  stood  for 
honest  government,  the  reforms  that  he  advocated  most 
successfully  were  those  that  dealt  with  liberty  and  free- 
dom; with  the  abolition  of  cruelty  in  the  prisons,  with 
the  stopping  of  oppression  by  petty  officers  of  the  law, 
and  with  the  ending  of  graft,  the  graft  that  hit  mainly 
those  who  were  trying  to  earn  a  mere  living. 

The  critics  who  were  unable  to  understand  the  Pulitzers, 
or  Bennetts,  or  Greeleys,  were  generally  those  who  failed 
2  Eggleston,  Recollections,  329,  330. 


THE  MELODRAMA  IN  THE  NEWS  3^7 

to  appreciate  the  value  of  sentiment  —  direct  sentiment 
as  it  were.  Otto  H.  Kahn  tells  of  a  famous  financier 
who  was  unable  to  endure  listening  to  a  violinist  play 
Chopin's  "  Funeral  March,"  because  it  always  moved  him 
to  tears;  there  are  many  who  are  sensitive  to  beauty  in 
the  same  way,  yet  the  knowledge  that  the  violinist  was 
starving  would  move  them  little.  Yet  it  is  such  men, 
keen  for  subtle  beauties,  who,  in  democratic  leaders,  see 
mere  exponents  of  demagogy. 

Pulitzer  was  distinguished  from  most  of  his  predeces- 
sors in  journalism,  not  so  much  for  his  financial  success, 
or  for  his  sentimental  treatment  of  the  news,  but  by  the 
fact  that  he  saw  that  the  Fourth  Estate  was  so  great  a 
power  in  the  country  that  the  men  who  were  to  be  its 
votaries  should  be  trained,  as  well  and  as  thoroughly  as 
those  who  entered  any  of  the  other  professions.  It  was 
this  knowledge  of  the  responsibility  that  is  placed  on  every 
man  in  the  profession  that  led  him  to  suggest  the  school 
of  journalism  at  Columbia  University.  Like  most  of 
the  great  editors  of  the  country  he  had  been  obliged  to 
work  for  his  own  education  —  and  a  great  education  it 
had  proved  to  be  —  but  he  desired  that  there  should  be 
some  better  system;  so  that  those  who  were  to  take  up 
a  career  fraught,  when  that  career  was  a  downward 
one,  with  so  much  of  peril  to  the  public,  should  be 
trained  under  auspices  that  would  tend  to  develop 
character. 

Pulitzer  has  been  called  an  adventurer  in  journalism, 
but  such  characterization  takes  little  account  of  the  depth 
and  genius  of  the  man.  When  we  find  that  the  journal- 
ism with  which  his  name  is  associated  had  the  qualities  of 
romance  and  sentiment  of  drama,  we  must  remember  that 
such  was  the  man.  He  had  lived  a  most  melodramatic 
life.     Was  it  possible  that  the  journalism  that  bore  the 


368  HISTORY  OF  JOURNALISM 

stamp  of  his  personality  could  be  otherwise  than  melo- 
dramatic ? 

When  we  find  that  criticism  against  journalism  that  is 
at  all  democratic  has  always,  from  the  very  beginning  up 
to  to-day,  proceeded  from  the  educated  or  superior  class, 
it  is  most  logical  to  assume  that  there  is,  and  that  there 
will  continue  to  be,  natural  opposition.  The  journals 
of  the  educated  class  will  never  be  able  to  see  those  of 
the  uneducated  class  in  anything  but  the  most  critical  light. 
To  a  certain  extent  this  is  wise,  because  healthy,  sound, 
vigorous  criticism  is  as  necessary  for  radicalism  as  reform 
is  necessary  for  conservatism. 

The  idea  of  the  School  of  Journalism  came,  curiously 
enough,  from  a  man  of  the  people, —  from  one  of  their 
champions.  We  have  seen  how,  for  almost  two  hundred 
years,  the  attitude  of  many  of  the  educated  and  cultured 
was  that  this  new  vocation  was  not  a  profession.  We 
have  seen  them  even  deny  its  power,  the  power  that  was 
deciding  the  questions  of  the  day, —  self-evident  as  that 
power  was. 

Pulitzer  was  the  first  to  recognize  the  new  profession 
was  drawing  to  it  young  men  of  brains  and  ability  who 
had  been  trained  for  some  other  profession.  Aside  from 
the  idealism  which  led  to  his  suggestion  and  to  his  be- 
quests founding  the  new  school,  there  was  the  desire  to 
eliminate  the  great  waste  of  time  that  came  through  train- 
ing men  to  be  journalists,  who  had  started  out  to  be 
something  else. 

*'  What  is  everybody's  business,"  he  said  once,  "  is  no- 
body's business  —  except  the  journalist's.  It  is  his  by 
adoption.  But  for  his  care  almost  every  reform  would 
be  stillborn.  He  holds  officials  to  their  duty.  He  ex- 
poses secret  schemes  of  plunder.  He  promotes  every 
hopeful  plan  of  progress.     Without  him  public  opinion 


THE  MELODRAMA  IN  THE  NEWS  369 

would  be  shapeless  and  dumb.  Our  republic  and  its  press 
will  rise  or  fall  together.  An  able,  disinterested,  public- 
spirited  press,  with  trained  intelligence  to  know  the  right 
and  courage  to  do  it,  can  preserve  that  public  virtue 
without  which  popular  government  is  a  sham  and  a 
mockery."  * 

^^  Review  of  Reviews,  February,  1912,  p.  187. 


CHAPTER  XXVIII 

CONCLUSION 

William  Randolph  Hearst  —  Position  in  newspaper  world  not 
unique  —  Loyalty  to  California  —  Eastern  Opinion  vs.  Spirit 
of  the  West  —  Early  days  on  Pacific  coast  —  Brannan  and 
Colton  —  Discovery  of  gold  —  James  King  of  William  —  His 
murder  —  Conclusion  —  Gregory  Humes  —  The  genius  of 
journalism. 

Psychologically,  as  well  as  chronologically,  the  journal- 
ism of  William  Randolph  Hearst  succeeded  that  of  Jo- 
seph Pulitzer.  It  is  an  interesting  fact  that,  though  both 
editors  were  of  the  same  political  faith  and  though  both, 
as  inventors  of  the  ''  yellow  press,"  had  to  suffer  the 
opprobrium  of  the  conservative  and  Republican  journals, 
their  antagonism  toward  each  other  was  more  bitter  than 
that  between  them  and  their  political  opponents.  It  was 
in  the  case  of  the  papers  of  these  two  editors  that  the 
large  amount  of  capital  invested  in  the  modern  press  be- 
gan to  show  influence ; —  where  circulation  or  business 
success  is  concerned  there  is  no  common  cause  in  journal- 
ism. 

At  least  a  dozen  serious  people  have  asked  in  the  course 
of  the  preparation  of  this  work,  "  What  are  you  going  to 
do  with  Hearst?  "  In  treating  of  contemporary  charac- 
ters, the  difficulties  are  obvious,  and  the  easiest  way  is 
always  avoidance.  The  purpose  of  this  study  would  be 
belied,  however,  if  we  were  to  endeavor  even  a  lesser 
makeshift.  What  little  we  may  have  imbibed  of  the 
spirit  of  the  men  who  have  inspired  these  pages  would 

370 


CONCLUSION  371 

have  miscarried,  if  we  ourselves  hesitated  to  apply  the 
rules  of  fair  measurement  that  we,  by  implication,  are 
urging  on  others. 

The  best  way  to  arrive  at  a  correct  historic  judgment 
is  to  try  to  conceive  of  the  man  under  dissection  as  being 
thoroughly  dead  and  completely  forgotten.  He  is  resur- 
rected for  the  purpose  of  finding  out  what  he  did,  and 
what  effect  he  had  on  his  contemporaries.  The  abuse 
showered  on  him  by  his  rivals  then  frequently  becomes 
an  evidence  that  he  wielded  some  power.  The  question 
is,  Did  he  wield  that  power  for  good  or  for  evil?  Was 
he  selfish?  Was  he  (and  this  is  important  in  a  democ- 
racy) corrupt? 

In  the  matter  of  arousing  bitter  hatred,  Hearst's  posi- 
tion in  American  journalism  has  not  been  unique.  The 
feeling  against  the  elder  Bennett,  when  the  papers  of  the 
city  united  against  him  in  the  famous  Herald  war, —  going 
to  the  extent  of  abusing  the  manager  of  the  Astor  House 
for  permitting  him  and  his  wife  to  live  there, —  was  far 
greater  than  it  ever  was  against  Hearst.  Yet  we  know 
now  that  Bennett  violated  no  law,  other  than  the  canons 
of  good  taste.  The  office  of  Greeley  was  almost  sacked, 
and  his  life  was  threatened;  Bennett  urged  for  him  a 
public  hanging ;  he  was  a  thorn  in  Lincoln's  side, —  but 
we  know  now  that  Greeley  was  one  of  the  great  moral 
forces  in  this  nation.  The  "  rascally  Pulitzer,"  as  his 
contemporaries  called  him,  was  the  subject  of  a  most 
scurrilous  pamphlet,  he  was  derided  for  his  humble  be- 
ginnings ;  yet  his  contribution  to  journalistic  advancement, 
through  his  school  of  journalism,  is  greater  than  that  of 
any  other  individual,  unless  it  be  Jefferson. 

What  the  final  judgment  on  Hearst  will  be  depends 
very  largely  on  his  own  actions,  for  the  popularity  or  un- 
popularity of  the  cause  espoused  has  much  to  do  with  the 


372  HISTORY  OF  JOURNALISM 

final  judgment  passed  by  the  people  on  the  journalist. 
He  has  certain  deep  ingrained  prejudices,  which,  if  he 
were  a  statesman,  might  be  grave  defects;  to  the  journal- 
ist, however,  they  are  often,  if  his  vision  is  correct,  a 
source  of  strength.  Journalism  is  the  only  profession 
where  prejudice,  like  versatility,  may  be  an  asset. 

In  analyzing  Hearst  and  his  two  principal  papers, 
the  New  York  American  and  the  New  York  Evening 
Journal,  one  fact  has  been  ignored.  Though  a  New 
Yorker  by  adoption,  he  has  always  remained  a  loyal  Gali- 
fornian.  He  has  a  thoroughly  western  contempt  for  the 
things  that  the  East  reveres;  his  success  has  been  made 
over  their  heads;  being  financially  able,  he  has  bitterly 
attacked  the  banking  influence  that  predominates  in  the 
East,  and  in  turn  has  had  visited  on  him  all  the  social  dis- 
favor that  his  opponents  could  command.  As  nearly  as 
possible,  the  war  between  Hearst  and  his  opponents  has 
been  a  class  war,  for  the  dispassionate  historian  must  ad- 
mit, despite  all  the  criticism  of  Hearst,  that  he  has  been 
a  vigorous  American  and  has  never  advocated  reforms 
outside  the  line  of  law  or  against  the  constitution,  but 
has  always  been  in  full  sympathy  with  his  patron  saint, 
Jefferson. 

Hearst  represents  a  West  that  has  always  been  more  or 
less,  in  Eastern  opinion,  an  appendage  to  the  political 
sentiment  of  the  country.  This  interesting  view  was 
represented  in  the  declaration  of  a  distinguished  states- 
man who  said  to  the  writer,  within  the  last  decade,  that 
a  political  battle  then  imminent  would  have  to  be  won 
by  the  forces  he  represented,  in  order  "  that  the  political 
control  of  the  country  might  remain  in  the  East."  The 
tone  in  which  he  spoke  indicated  his  strong  belief  that 
the  passing  of  the  control  from  the  East  would  be  not 
only  a  political  catastrophe  but  a  menace  to  the  country. 


CONCLUSION  373 

As  a  matter  of  fact,  it  has  been  the  West  and  not  the 
East  that,  since  the  Civil  War,  has  generated  the  power 
back  of  those  reforms  and  those  progressive  measures 
that  have  developed  and  strengthened  the  democracy  of 
the  country.  A  racy  people  will  always  be  nearer  to  the 
springs  of  government,  and,  being  near  the  source,  will 
carry  out  the  ideas  more  vehemently  and  spontaneously, 
than  a  people  steeped  in  tradition  and  custom.  Attri- 
tion wears  away  impulse  sometimes  with  curious  results. 
In  the  last  decade  or  two  we  find  growing  up  in  the  East 
the  feeling  that  the  Federalist  party  was  not,  after  all,  the 
party  of  error  that  for  over  a  hundred  years  we  have 
assumed  it  to  be.  Such  a  sentiment  could  never,  during 
the  last  fifty  years,  have  found  any  encouragement  west 
of  the  Mississippi. 

The  spirit  of  that  country,  developed  with  the  printing 
press  as  well  as  with  the  pick  and  the  spade,  w^ould  be  a 
separate  study  in  itself;  we  have  been  able  only  to  hint 
at  this  spirit,  in  the  story  of  the  settlement  of  the  west- 
ern reserve.  When  we  come  to  the  bloody  settlement  of 
Kansas,  we  find  that  the  printing  press  anticipated  even 
the  pick  and  the  spade. 

There  were,  among  the  Mormons,  many  printers,  at 
least  enough  to  be  conspicuous  as  a  class,  and  these  men, 
as  the  new  sect  pushed  itself  westward,  identified  frontier 
life  with  the  printing  press.  A  group  of  New  York  and 
New  England  Mormons,  led  by  a  printer  named  Samuel 
Brannan,  who  had  already  printed  a  Mormon  paper  in 
New  York,  established  a  colony  on  the  bay  of  San  Fran- 
cisco in  September,  1846.  Brannan  had  brought  out  with 
him  printing  press,  type,  paper,  etc.,  and  within  four 
months  after  the  founding  of  this  colony  he  printed  the 
first  issue  of  the  California  Star.  A  few  weeks  before, 
on  August  15,  1846,  the  first  newspaper  in  the  Territory 


374  HISTORY  OF  JOURNALISM 

of  California  had  been  printed  at  Monterey  by  the  Amer- 
ican alcalde,  Walter  Colton,  a  former  editor  of  the  Phila- 
delphia North  American.  On  taking  over  the  alcalde's 
office  from  his  retreating  predecessor,  Colton  had  discov- 
ered an  old  press  and  some  Spanish  type.  By  using  cig- 
arette paper,  the  sheets  of  which  were  a  little  larger  than 
ordinary  foolscap,  he  was  able  to  bring  out  the  Calif  or- 
nian  within  a  few  weeks  after  the  raising  of  the  American 
flag.^  The  paper  was  printed  in  both  English  and  Span- 
ish and,  as  the  Spanish  font  contained  no  "W,"  that  letter 
in  the  English  section  of  the  paper  was  represented  by 
two  "  Vs." 

The  following  spring  the  Calif ornian  moved  to  San 
Francisco,  and  a  year  later  both  the  California  Star  and 
the  Calif  ornian  were  obliged  to  suspend  publication  be- 
cause all  the  employees,  including  the  printer's  devil,  had 
hurriedly  quit  when  they  heard  of  the  discovery  of  gold. 
The  whole  country,  from  San  Francisco  to  Los  Angeles, 
responded  to  one  cry  —  gold !  ^ 

In  the  strange  and  feverish  times  that  followed,  the 
name  of  James  King  of  William  stands  out.  Between 
1849  and  1856  a  thousand  murders  had  been  committed 
in  San  Francisco,  but  only  one  legal  execution  had  taken 
place.  The  government  was  admittedly  rotten,  business 
was  uncertain  and  failures  common ;  corruption,  gambling 
and  crime  were  so  rampant  that  the  better  class  of  citi- 
zens absolutely  despaired. 

James  King  of  William  —  the  very  name  he  adopted 
showed  him  to  be  a  man  of  strong  opinions  —  was  a  na- 
tive of  Georgetown,  in  the  District  of  Columbia,  and 
had  worked  in  the  banking  house  of  Corcoran  and  Riggs 
at  Washington.     Before  the  knowledge  of  the  discovery 

1  Walter  Colton,  Three  Years  in  California,  33. 

2  Hittell,  History  of  California,  ii,  689. 


CONCLUSION  375 

of  gold  had  reached  the  East,  he  had  sailed  for  Califor- 
nia, hoping  to  find,  through  the  change  of  climate,  a  re- 
newal of  health.  He  succeeded  in  establishing  himself 
in  the  banking  business  and  became  widely  known  as  a 
man  of  intelligence  and  courage,  as  well  as  of  integrity. 
His  open  refusal  to  fight  a  duel  attracted  to  him  that  ele- 
ment of  the  community  that  was  struggling,  almost  hope- 
lessly, against  the  lawless  element.  In  the  various  ex- 
planations and  statements  that  he  had  been  called  on  to 
make  as  a  business  man,  he  had  developed  a  crisp,  direct 
style  that  led  his  friends  to  suggest  ,the  feasibility  of  his 
starting  a  newspaper.  On  October  /,  1855,  the  first  num- 
ber of  the  Daily  Evening  Bulletin  was  issued;  from  the 
first  number  it  began  an  attack  on  the  corruption  and 
fraud  of  the  politicians  and  bankers.  From  the  begin- 
ning he  refused  to  accept  low  medical  advertisements, 
and,  though  his  paper  was  unrestricted  in  abuse  and  ve- 
hement denunciation  of  public  and  private  criminals,  King 
asserted  that  he  would  print  nothing  that  was  not  fit  to 
be  read  at  his  own  fireside. 

The  paper  was  a  sensation  and  greatly  heartened  those 
who,  until  it  made  its  appearance,  had  believed  that  the 
conditions  in  San  Francisco  were  irremediable. 

A  month  after  the  publication  of  the  Bulletin,  a  United 
States  marshal  was  shot  down  by  a  disreputable  gambler. 
King,  in  the  Bulletin,  while  urging  the  citizens  to  be  cau- 
tious, called  on  the  community  to  watch  the  sheriff  and 
to  hang  him  if  the  murderer  escaped.  So  boldly  had 
King  attacked  the  vicious  element  in  San  Francisco  that 
it  was  decided  to  kill  him.  A  rufBan  named  Casey  picked 
a  quarrel,  and  King,  as  he  left  his  office  to  walk  to  his 
home,  was  shot  before  he  could  defend  himself.  The 
San  Francisco  Herald,  a  rival  paper,  referred  to  the  shoot- 
ing as  "  an  afTray  between  Mr.  J.  P.  Casey  and  Mr.  James 


376  HISTORY  OF  JOURNALISM 

King,'*  which  reference  aroused  such  indignation  that 
the  paper  was  obHged  to  suspend.  The  result  of  this 
murder  was  the  formation  of  the  Vigilance  Committee 
of  1856. 

To  the  Eastern  mind,  such  a  beginning  will  seem  to 
have  no  reflection  in  the  orderly  and  well-edited  papers 
that  now  abound  in  the  far  West,  nor  will  it  seem  to  offer 
the  slightest  excuse  for  a  wealthy  young  Calif ornian's 
having  stirred,  angered  and  irritated  the  East  —  and  hav- 
ing been  successful.  Unfortunately,  the  Eastern  mind 
that  takes  an  interest  in  the  subject  is,  at  best,  little  given 
to  understanding  the  West, —  even  its  simpler  aspects. 
Frank  students  of  our  policy  admit  this,  while  others 
irritably  protest,  ^*  Nonsense;  we're  all  alike  —  like  us." 
It  isn't  so,  but  although  the  West  knows  that  it  is  not  so, 
the  East  does  not.  Whatever  is  to  be  the  final  analysis 
of  Hearst  it  will  be  one  in  which  the  call  of  men  for 
strange  and  lonely  venture,  the  nervous  dislike  of  check 
and  convention,  will  largely  enter.  Meanwhile,  the  stu- 
dent of  journalism  finds  food  for  thought  in  the  fact  that 
the  greatest  exponent  of  personal  journalism,  in  the  city 
that  produced  the  Titans  of  the  profession,  was  a  Cali- 
fornian;  one  who,  whatever  his  faults,  has  never  been 
harnessed  and  certainly  never  afraid. 


We  have  followed  the  line  of  a  development  strange  in 
the  history  of  civilization.  We  have  seen  the  rise  of 
journalism  from  the  time,  less  than  two  centuries  ago, 
when  it  had  little  relation  with  government  and  public 
opinion, —  so  little  that  the  suppression  of  the  first  paper 
by  the  government  aroused  no  protest;  the  records,  in 
fact,  indicate  that  the  suppression  was  regarded  with  a 
complacency  tantamount  to  approval.     So  far  as  we  know 


CONCLUSION  377 

there  was  -7-  save  the  individual  concerned  financially  — 
no  one  to  protest,  or  to  resist  the  complete  subjugation 
of  what  we  call  public  opinion,  which  in  this  instance  we 
may  call  public  soul.  Harris  stands  out  as  almost  the 
single  point  of  protest  against  conditions  as  they  were  in 
1690,  as  opposed  to  conditions  as  they  should  be.  He 
represented,  as  did  no  other  man  in  that  community  at 
that  time,  the  idea  of  rule  by  public  opinion,  as  it  has  since 
developed.  He  represented  the  theory  of  public  rights  in 
a  community  that,  while  it  was  founded  on  the  idea  of 
liberty  and  public  rights,  still  failed  to  realize  that  within 
itself  it  had  created  an  autocracy  just  as  hateful  as  the 
one  from  which  it  had  fled. 

The  community  had  not  —  in  fact,  the  world  had  not  — 
grown  to  realize  that  liberty  or  freedom  of  conscience  can- 
not be  had  without  freedom  of  discussion.  Harris'  impo- 
tence, as  well  as  his  strength,  was  the  fact  that  he  repre- 
sented an  idea,  and  used  an  invention,  that  was  as  yet 
hardly  developed  —  the  printing  press  and  the  new  idea 
of  journalism. 

In  1690  Harris  was  the  sole  point  of  contact  between 
the  great  mass  of  people  in  America  —  a  vast  majority 
of  whom  did  not  even  know  that  he  lived  —  and  what 
we  call  public  opinion.  To-day  there  is  no  section  or 
group  of  the  people  in  this  country  not  represented  in  the 
court  of  public  opinion ;  none  which  has  not,  in  some  form 
or  some  way,  a  journalistic  representative  in  the  field, 
battling  for  its  proper  share  of  attention  in  a  democracy 
where  the  will  of  the  people,  as  exercised  under  a  constitu- 
tion, is  the  law  of  the  land. 

What  our  study  of  this  development  has  shown  us  is 
that  a  system  has  slowly  evolved,  whereby  the  people 
are  given  the  fullest  measure  of  control  and  are  made,  in 
the  final  analysis,  the  direct  sponsors  of  the  government 


378  HISTORY  OF  JOURNALISM 

that  they  control.  A  more  complete  circle  of  delegation 
of  power  and  return  has  never  existed,  and  it  is  not  easy 
to  conceive  of  making  it  more  responsive  without  pro- 
ducing a  chaos  that  would  negative  all  human  effort.  As 
our  problems  have  arisen,  the  elasticity  of  the  self-devised 
checks  has  been  proved;  imperfections,  so-called,  have 
really  been  the  results  that  are  inevitable  in  a  country 
growing  and  developing  in  unprecedented  ways.  Dan- 
gers and  failures  have  been  found  and  will  be  found,  as 
must  be  expected  under  any  government  into  which  the 
human  element  enters  to  so  great  an  extent.  But  it  is  in 
this  particular  regard  that  the  American  democracy  has 
achieved  its  greatest  triumph  —  there  has  never  been  in 
high  office  a  man,  with  the  exception  of  Aaron  Burr,  who 
has  shown  a  vicious  intent  toward  the  people,  nor  have 
there  been,  among  the  thousands  of  unfettered  editors,  any 
conspicuous  examples  of  men  who  have  not  had  their 
country's  interest  first  at  heart,  wrong  though  some  of 
them  have  been  in  their  methods. 

There  is  no  profession,  unless  it  is  medicine,  that  calls 
for  a  higher  regard  for  the  simple  truth  than  does  jour- 
nalism. **  A  good  reporter  is  one  who  is  never  deceived 
by  a  lie."  There  have  been  men,  there  are  men,  into 
whose  consciousness  this  fact  never  penetrates,  but  for 
the  vast  majority  of  the  men  who  have  achieved  distinc- 
tion in  journalism  it  has  been  an  actuating  and  primal 
principle. 

From  the  very  humble  beginning  of  journalism  in 
America  to  this  day,  there  has  been  a  devotion  to  duty 
that  shows  how  fundamental  is  this  ethical  principle,  in 
those  who  are  drawn  into  this  profession,  where  success 
is  not  measured  by  fame  or  by  money.  Those  who,  like 
Bucher,  see  but  the  commercial  side,  or,  like  Boynton, 
recognize  only  a  shadowing  and  imitation  of  literature, 


CONCLUSION  379 

miss  something  —  something  fine  that  lies  in  the  soul  of 
men  whose  deep  interest  In  their  fellowmen  satisfies  them 
with  positions  in  life  far  below  what  their  talents  could 
command. 

Walter  Pater  speaks  somewhere, —  in  Mariiis,  I 
think, —  of  the  aesthetic  charm  that  lies  In  mere  clear 
thought.  There  is  indeed  an  aesthetic  charm  in  the  sim- 
ple and  truthful  recital  of  events  in  the  world  we  live  in 
—  it  may  not  be  evident  to  those  who  soar  high,  those 
whose  minds  are  attuned  to  the  rhythm  of  greater  beauties, 
but  it  is  there;  men  know  it,  and  carry  that  knowledge 
through  life  whether  they  have  learned  it  in  the  grimy, 
unattractive  office  of  some  ''  patent-inside  "  weekly  or, 
with  greater  force,  as  part  of  the  large,  keen  organization 
that  prints,  in  the  small  hours  of  the  morning,  a  great 
metropolitan  daily. 

No  new^spaper  man  reaches  forty  without  having  met 
and  talked  with  thousands  of  fellow- workers ;  they  leave, 
in  their  entirety,  an  ineffaceable  impression  of  optimism, 
of  high  purpose,  of  indomitable  energy  and  courage. 
Considered  as  individuals,  no  two  are  alike;  twin  brothers 
have  curiously  opposing  facets,  overshadowing  mere 
physiognomical  resemblances.  A  regiment  of  reporters 
w^ill  hear  the  same  speech  or  witness  the  same  convention, 
yet  what  they  write  will  have  such  rare  diversity  that 
one  will  wonder  by  what  miracle  there  were  gathered  to- 
gether so  many  intellects  so  strangely  dissimilar. 

If  their  ow^n  opinion  were  sought,  the  vast  majority  of 
these  newspaper  men,  dissimilar  as  they  are  In  character 
and  point  of  view,  would  explain  their  attraction  to  their 
calling, —  one  long  considered  unworthy  the  name  of  a 
profession, —  by  the  "  love  of  the  game." 

The  "  game  "  —  a  child's  word ;  there  the  explanation 
greatly  lies.     For  men,  like  children,  must  love  what  they 


380  HISTORY  OF  JOURNALISM 

do  more  than  they  love  themselves,  if  they  are  to  wield 
the  force  that  makes  youth  and  romance  so  omnipotent. 
The  flavor  of  adventure  is  never  lacking  in  successful 
journalism  because,  underlying  it  all,  is  the  consciousness, 
a  consciousness  curiously  aggressive,  that  evil  is  being 
overthrown ;  that  that  incomprehensible  thing,  the  public, 
is  being  served  through  the  medium  of  the  particular 
journal  for  which  the  work  is  undertaken. 

The  '*  game,"  however,  has  behind  it  a  purpose,  a  deep 
and  serious  purpose,  as  this  book,  I  believe,  has  shown. 
Expressed  or  unexpressed,  there  is  always  a  strong  belief 
that  this  country  is  different  from  others,  and  that  the 
making  of  a  happier  and  better  nation  is  in  the  hands  of 
each  individual,  working  his  own  way.  There  is  ever 
present,  under  cynical  cover  at  times,  the  missionary  spirit 

—  the  sense  of  personal  responsibility  for  the  right  con- 
duct of  our  government  and  our  people,  a  spirit  that 
leads  even  to  the  greatest  sacrifice. 

Of  that  spirit  two  examples  come  to  mind  —  there 
must  be  hundreds  that  are  known  to  others.  At  an  en- 
gagement near  Santiago,  Cuba,  just  previous  to  the 
battle  of  El  Caney,  in  the  Spanish-American  War,  there 
was  a  correspondent,  named  Edward  Marshall,  of  the 
New  York  Journal.  He  was  where,  if  he  had  had  due 
regard  for  his  own  life,  he  would  not  have  been  —  in  the 
front  with  the  soldiers.  A  bullet  struck  his  thigh,  mak- 
ing him  a  cripple  for  Hfe;  as  he  lay  bleeding  and  wounded 

—  how  seriously,  it  was  not  possible  to  tell  —  he  dictated 
to  a  comrade  his  story  for  his  paper.  It  was  foolhardy, 
some  one  afterward  suggested, —  but  was  it  not  also  mag- 
nificent ? 

In  the  editorial  office  of  the  New  York  World  is  a 
bronze  tablet  bearing  the  inscription: 


CONCLUSION  381 

IN    MEMORY    OF 

GREGORY  T.  HUMES 

Reporter  on  the  World 

Mortally  injured  in  the  Stamford  Railroad  Wreck. 

He  thought  first  of  his  paper  and  with  indomitable  courage  sent 

the  news  of  the  disaster. 

Born  April  22,  1878 

Died  June  13,  1913 

Humes  was  a  passenger  on  the  train  when  the  wreck 
occurred.  When  he  was  lifted  out,  dying,  his  first  re- 
quest was  that  his  paper  be  notified  that  there  was  "  a  big 
story  "  at  Stamford,  and  that  he  was  sorry  that  he  could 
not  write  it  as  he  was  **  all  smashed  up."  Not  until  his 
duty  was  done  would  he  ask  that  his  mother  be  telephoned 
to  come  to  him. 

"  For  those  who  see  the  newspapers  from  the  outside," 
commented  a  paper  at  that  time,  ''  and  with  more  suspi- 
cion and  criticism  than  understanding,  this  reporter's 
example  should  at  least  suggest  the  thought  that  no  trade, 
business,  profession,  which  can  enlist  such  men  and  retain 
such  loyalty  can  quite  deserve  that  fine  scorn  visited  upon 
it  so  frequently  by  those  thoughtless  cynics  who  do  not 
see  behind  its  necessary  impersonality  the  keen  and  vital 
individuality  of  hundreds  of  men  like  Gregory  Humes, 
whose  occupation  he  has  dignified  by  his  complete  fidelity 
to  its  highest  standards  and  its  unwritten  code."  ^ 

I  have  said  that  there  must  be  others.  There  is 
scarcely  an  editor  whose  experience  will  not  bear  witness 
of  the  youths,  many  from  homes  of  comfort  and  luxury, 
who  have,  at  no  matter  what  discomfort,  shown  equal 
spirit.  That  spirit  is  not  to  be  explained  away  by  any 
sordid  analysis;  it  is  the  finest  of  American  spirit  en- 
listed in  the  finest  of  causes  —  the  public  weal. 

''  But,"  says  the  critic,  "  it  is  not  benefiting  the  public 

3  New  York  Sun,  June,  1913. 


382  HISTORY  OF  JOURNALISM 

to  report  a  railway  wreck."  "  It  wasn't  necessary  to  re- 
port it  at  once;  the  facts  would  have  come  out  at  the  in- 
vestigation before  the  grand  jury,"  I  hear  some  distin- 
guished graybeard  of  a  jurist  say.  The  man  who  feels 
that  way,  who  thinks  that  way,  does  not  know  the  Amer- 
ican public.  Whether  it  is  in  the  crowded,  congested 
section  of  the  city,  amid  the  clatter  of  push-carts  and  the 
din  of  the  itinerant  peddlers,  or  far  away  in  the  hills 
where  the  cowbell  at  evening  echoes  for  miles,  there  is 
caught  up,  more  than  all  the  fulminations  of  the  states- 
man, the  spirit  of  the  ''  game  "  —  the  spirit  of  sacrifice 
of  the  reporter  Humes ;  the  spirit  that  made  America  free 
and  that  has  made  her  people  trusting  and  confident. 


APPENDIX  —  NOTE  A 
THE  BEGINNING  OF  "  NEWES  " 

No  papers  of  so  early  a  date  as  the  reign  of  Elizabeth  are 
preserved  in  the  British  Museum,  but  we  have  been  kindly 
favored  by  Dr.  Rimbault  with  the  following  list,  which  has 
fallen  under  his  observation,  all  of  which,  with  the  exception 
of  the  last,  are  of  that  reign : 

"  Newe  newes,  containing  a  short  rehersal  of  Stukely's  and 
Morice's  Rebellion,"  4to,  1579. 

"  Newes  from  the  North,  or  a  Conference  between  Simon 
Certain  and  Pierce  Plowman,"  4to,  1579. 

"  Newes  from  Scotland,  declaring  the  damnable  liie^  of  Doc- 
tor Fian,  a  notable  sorcerer,  who  was  burned  at  Edenborough 
in  January  last,"  4to,  Gothic,   1591. 

"  Newes  from  Spaine  and  Holland,"   1593. 

"  Newes  from  Brest,  or  a  Diurnal  of  Sir  John  Norris,"  4to, 
1594  (printed  by  Richard  Yardley). 

"  Newes    from   Flanders,"    1599. 

"  Newes  out  of  Cheshire  of  the  new  found  well,"  1600. 

"  News  from  Gravesend,"  4to,  1604, 

We  may  add  to  Dr.  Rimbault's  list  the  following: 

"  Wonderful  and  strange  newes  out  of  Suffolke  and  Essex, 
where  it  rayned  wheat  the  space  of  six  or  seven  miles,"  i2mo., 

1583. 

The  titles  of  most  of  these  pamphlets  direct  us  to  a  very 
fair  estimate  of  their  contents;  it  must  be  confessed  they  were 
somewhat  of  the  stamp  of  the  "  Full,  True,  and  Particular 
Accounts "  of  Seven  Dials.  The  public  asked  for  news  — 
and  got  it  in  its  first  crude  form,  yet  still  in  disjointed  frag- 
ments: — 

"  Lamentable  newes  out  of  Monmouthshire  in  Wales,  con- 
taininge  the  wonderful  and  fearfull  accounts  of  the  great  over- 
flowing of  the  waters  in  the  said  countye,"  etc.,  1607. 

"  Woful  newes  from  the  west  partes  of  England,  of  the 
burning  of  Tiverton,"  4to,  1612,  with  a  frontispiece. 

383 


384  HISTORY  OF  JOURNALISM 

"  Strange  newes  from  Lancaster,  containing  an  account  of  a 
prodigious  monster  born  in  the  township  of  Addlington  in 
Lancashire,  with  two  bodies  joyned  to  one  back,"  April  13th, 
1613. 

The  appetite  for  news  is  whetted  and  increased  efforts  are 
made  to  appease  it.  The  pamphlets  begin  to  assume  a  more 
definite  form : 

"Newes  from  Spaine,"  published  in  161 1. 

"  Newes  out  of  Germany,"  1612. 

"  Good  newes  from  Florence,"  1614. 

"  Newes  from  Mamora,"  1614. 

"  Newes  from  Gulick  and  Cleve,"  1615. 

"  Newes  from  Italy,"  1618. 

"  Newes  out  of  Holland,"  published  May  i6th,  1619.  (Dr. 
Burney's  collection.) 

"  Vox  Populi,  or  Newes  from  Spaine,"  1620. 

"  Newes  from  Hull,"  "  Truths  from  York,"  "  Warranted  tid- 
ings from  Ireland,"  "  Newes  from  Poland,"  "  Special  passages 
from  several  places,"  etc.,  etc. 

Such  are  samples  of  the  titles  of  news  books  preserved  in  the 
British  Museum  and  other  collections,  most  of  them  pur- 
porting to  be  translations  from  the  Low  Dutch. 

Andrews,  History  of  British  Journalism,  vol.  i,  pp.  25-27. 


APPENDIX  —  NOTE  B 
THE  CHARACTER  OF  WILLIAM  BRADFORD 

It  is  not  perhaps  the  least  praise  of  a  man  so  long  and  so 
closely  connected  as  Bradford  was  with  the  great  engine  of 
parties,  that  while  he  was  a  steady  supporter  of  the  adminis- 
tration of  Governor  Cosby  and  Lieutenant-Governor  Clark 
against  the  fierce  opposition  made  by  the  Weekly  Journal  of 
Zenger  and  the  party  of  Van  Dam  who  controlled  it,  he  seems 
to  have  gone  to  extreme  lengths  with  no  one;  but  to  have 
pursued  a  long  career  of  creditable  industry,  unmarked  by 
"  those  incidents  which  arrest  the  attention  by  agitating  the 
passions  of  mankind."  It  was  the  natural  result  of  such  a 
course  that  he  accumulated  a  large  estate  which  he  lived  long 
to  enjoy. 

It   is   an   evidence  of   Bradford's   strong  capacity   that,   al- 


APPENDICES  3S5 

though  "  the  darkness  of  old  age  "  had  now  begun  to  invade 
him,  and  his  concerns  were  both  various  and  extensive,  he 
should  have  carried  himself  and  them  successfully  against  the 
rivalry  and  interests  of  Benjamin  Franklin.  Through  the 
whole  term  of  Franklin's  connection  with  the  press  in  Philadel- 
phia, the  elder  Bradford  and  his  son  or  grandson  conducted 
their  journals  with  an  ability  which  perfectly  sustained  them; 
and  against  the  efforts,  not  very  scrupulous  ones  either,  of 
this  celebrated  man  —  to  whom  through  four  generations  of 
their  own  families,  they  were  constantly  opposed,  alike  on 
concerns  of  business  which  touched  very  sharply  the  pecuniary 
interests  of  the  great  "  economist  and  calculator  " ;  on  the  ex- 
citing feuds  of  provincial  politics,  and  finally,  on  the  great 
questions  of  the  Stamp  Act, —  to  which  the  Bradfords  were 
actively  opposed  —  and  the  course  of  the  Colonies  in  the 
early  stages  of  the  Revolution,  wherein  these  persons  were  bold 
and  confident  —  managed  the  concerns  of  their  offices  gener- 
ally with  steady  success  and  honorable  liberality.  Franklin, 
with  all  his  address  and  all  his  power,  and  an  animosity  diffi- 
cult to  understand  in  a  temper  so  apparently  placid  as  his, 
but  equal  to  either,  was  never  able  to  break  them  down.  And 
in  this  country  of  quick  changing  names  and  scenes,  it  de- 
serves a  record,  that  long  after  the  great  philosopher  and  his 
successful  rival  in  the  business  of  printing,  Andrew  Bradford 
(son  of  that  William  whom  we  now  commemorate)  were 
moldering  in  the  dust  beside  each  other  in  the  quiet  grave- 
yard of  Christ  Church,  in  that  same  place  where  more  than 
a  century  before,  the  king  of  printers'  had  been  received  and 
entertained  a  friendless  boy  by  a  son  of  the  aged  colonist  ^ — 
there  yet  stood,  in  a  fifth  generation  —  one  hundred  and  forty 
years,  at  least,  from  the  time  it  had  been  planted  on  that  soil 
—  pursuing  still  its  labor,  and  bearing  still  its  ancient  and 
proprietary  name,  "  The  Printing  Press  of  William  Brad- 
ford." 2 

1  Franklin  mentions  in  his  Autobiography  that  when  he  first  went 
to  Philadelphia,  in  his  seventeenth  year,  he  dressed  himself  as 
neat  as  he  could  and  went  to  Andrew  Bradford,  the  Printer.  "  He 
received  me  civilly,  gave  me  a  breakfast ;  told  me  '  I  should  be  wel- 
come to  lodge  at  his  house  and  he  would  give  me  a  little  work 
to  do  now  and  then  till  fuller  business  should  offer.* " 

2  It  appears,  from  the  imprint  of  many  books  yet  to  be  seen,  that 


386 


HISTORY  OF  JOURNALISM 


APPENDIX  —  NOTE  C 
BRYANT  INDEX  EXPURGATORIUS  i 


Above  and  over   (for  "more 

than") 

Artiste  (for  "Artist") 

Aspirant 

Authoress 

Beat   (for  "defeat") 

Bagging  (for  "capturing") 

Balance    (for    "remainder") 

Banquet  (for  "dinner"  or 
"supper") 

Bogus 

Casket    (for   "coffin") 

Claimed   (for  "asserted") 

Collided 

Commence   (for  "begin") 

Compete 

Cortege    (for    "procession") 

Cotemporary  (for  "contem- 
porary ") 

Couple   (for  "two") 

Darky    (for  "negro") 

Day  before  yesterday  (for 
"  the  day  before  yester- 
day") 

Debut 

Decease  (as  a  verb) 


Democracy  (applied  to  a 
political  party) 

Develop   (for  "expose") 

Devouring  element  (for 
"fire") 

Donate 

Employe 

Enacted   (for  "acted") 

Endorse    (for    "approve") 

Enroute 

"  Esq." 

Gents   (for  "gentlemen") 

Graduate  (for  "is  gradu- 
ated") 

"  Hon." 

House  (for  "House  of  Rep- 
resentatives") 

Humbug 

Inaugurate   (for  "begin") 

In  our  midst 

Is  being  done  (and  all  passives 
of  this   form) 

Item  (for  "  particle,  extract  or 
paragraph  ") 

Jeopardize 

Jubilant    (for  "rejoicing") 


this  press  was  in  operation  at  Philadelphia  in  the  year  1825,  being 
then  still  under  the  management  of  Willam  Bradford,  of  New 
York,  a  great-great-grandson  of  the  original  founder  of  it  in 
1685.  This  gentleman  was  the  last  of  this  ancient  family  of 
printers ;  and  it  is  calculated  to  inspire  a  sentiment  of  pathetic 
feeling  that,  with  him,  the  office  is  ■  finally  closed.  He  left  "  no 
son  of  his  succeeding." — "  Commemorative  Address  on  William 
Bradford,"  John  William  Wallace,  p.  93.  This  citation  covers  the 
entire  Note  B. 

1  Compiled  by  William  Cullen  Bryant  when  editor  of  the  Evening 

Post. 


APPENDICES 


387 


Juvenile  (for  "boy") 

Lady    (for  "'wife") 

Last  (for  "latest") 

Lengthy  (for  "long") 

Leniency    (for   "lenity") 

Loafer 

Loan  or  loaned   (for  "lend" 

or  "lent") 
Located 

Majority  (relating  to  places  or 
circumstances  for  "most") 
Mrs.     President,     Mrs.     Gov- 
ernor, Mrs.  General,  and  all 
similar  titles 
Mutual   (for  "common") 
Official  (for  "officer") 
On  yesterday 
Ovation 

Over  his  signature 
Pants  (for  "pantaloons") 
Partially  (for  "partly") 
Parties  (for  "persons") 
Past  two  weeks  (for  "  last  two 
weeks  "  and  all  similar  ex- 
pressions relating  to  a  defi- 
nite time) 
Poetess 

Portion    (for   "part") 
Posted  (for  "informed") 
Progress  (for  "advance") 


Quite  (prefixed  to  "good," 
"large,"  etc.) 

Raid    (for   "attack") 

Realized   (for  "obtained") 

Reliable  (for  "trustworthy") 

Rendition  (for  "perform- 
ance ") 

Repudiate  (for  "reject"  or 
"disown") 

Retire  (as  an  active  verb) 

Rev.  (for  "the  Rev.") 

Role  (for  "part") 

Roughs 

Rowdies 

Secesh 

Sensation  (for  "noteworthy 
event") 

Standpoint  (for  "point  of 
view  ") 

Start,  in  the  sense  of  "  setting 
out" 

State    (for   "say") 

Taboo 

Talent  (for  "talents"  or 
"ability") 

Talented 

Tapis 

The  deceased 

War  (for  "dispute"  or  "dis- 
agreement ") 


APPENDIX  —  NOTE  D 

HORACE  GREELEY'S  FAMOUS  LETTER  TO 
WILLIAM  H.  SEWARD 


"  New  York,  Saturday  evening, 

November   11,   1854. 
"  Governor   Seward, —  The   election   is   over,  and  its   results 
sufficiently  ascertained.     It  seems  to  me  a  fitting  time  to  an- 


388  HISTORY  OF  JOURNALISM 

nounce  to  you  the  dissolution  of  the  political  firm  of  Seward, 
Weed,  and  Greeley,  by  the  withdrawal  of  the  junior  partner  — 
said  withdrawal  to  take  effect  on  the  morning  after  the  first 
Tuesday  in  February  next.  And  as  it  may  seem  a  great  pre- 
sumption in  me  to  assume  that  any  such  firm  exists,  especially 
since  the  public  was  advised,  rather  more  than  a  year  ago, 
by  an  editorial  rescript  in  the  Evening  Journal,  formally  read- 
ing me  out  of  the  Whig  Party,  that  I  was  esteemed  no  longer 
either  useful  or  ornamental  in  the  concern,  you  will,  I  am 
sure,  indulge  me  in  some  reminiscences  which  seem  to  befit 
the  occasion. 

"  I  was  a  poor  young  printer  and  editor  of  a  literary 
journal  — a  very  active  and  bitter  Whig  in  a  small  way,  but 
not  seeking  to  be  known  out  of  my  own  Ward  Committee  — 
when,  after  the  great  political  revulsion  of  1837,  I  was  one 
day  called  to  the  City  Hotel,  where  two  strangers  introduced 
themselves  as  Thurlow  Weed  and  Lewis  Benedict,  of  Albany. 
They  told  me  that  a  cheap  campaign  paper  of  a  peculiar  stamp 
at  Albany  had  been  resolved  on,  and  that  I  had  been  selected 
to  edit  it.  The  announcement  might  well  be  deemed  flatter- 
ing by  one  who  had  never  even  sought  the  notice  of  the  great, 
and  who  was  not  known  as  a  partisan  writer,  and  I  eagerly 
embraced  their  proposals.  They  asked  me  to  fix  my  salary 
for  the  year;  I  named  $1000,  which  they  agreed  to;  and  I 
did  the  work  required  to  the  best  of  my  ability.  It  was  work 
that  made  no  figure  and  created  no  sensation;  but  I  loved  it, 
and  did  it  well.  When  it  was  done,  you  were  governor,  dis- 
pensing offices  worth  $3000  to  $20,000  per  year  to  your  friends 
and  compatriots,  and  I  returned  to  my  garret  and  my  crust, 
and  my  desperate  battle  with  pecuniary  obligations  heaped 
upon  me  by  bad  partners  in  business  and  the  disastrous  events 
of  1837.  I  believe  that  it  did  not  then  occur  to  me  that  some 
one  of  these  abundant  places  might  have  been  offered  to  me 
without  injustice;  I  now  think  it  should  have  occurred  to  you. 
If  it  did  occur  to  me,  I  was  not  the  man  to  ask  you  for  it; 
I  think  that  should  not  have  been  necessary.  I  only  remem- 
ber that  no  friend  at  Albany  inquired  as  to  my  pecuniary 
circumstances;  that  your  friend  (but  not  mine),  Robert  C. 
Wetmore,  was  one  of  the  chief  dispensers  of  your  patronage 
here;  and  that  such  devoted  compatriots  as  A.  H.  Wells  and 


APPENDICES  389 

John  Hooks  were  lifted  by  you  out  of  pauperism  into  inde- 
pendence, as  I  am  glad  I  was  not;  and  yet  an  inquiry  from 
you  as  to  my  needs  and  means  at  that  time  would  have  been 
timely,   and   held   ever   in   grateful   remembrance. 

"  In  the  Harrison  campaign  of  1840,  I  was  again  designated 
to  edit  a  campaign  paper.  I  published  it  as  well,  and  ought 
to  have  made  something  by  it,  in  spite  of  its  extreme  low 
price;  my  extreme  poverty  was  the  main  reason  why  I  did 
not.  It  compelled  me  to  hire  press-work,  mailing,  etc.,  done 
by  the  job,  and  high  charges  for  extra  work  nearly  ate  me 
up.  At  the  close,  I  was  still  without  property  and  in  debt, 
but  this  paper  had  rather  improved  my  position. 

"  Now  came  the  great  scramble  of  the  swell  mob  of  coon 
minstrels  and  cider-suckers  at  Washington  —  I  not  being 
counted  in.  Several  regiments  of  them  went  on  from  this 
city;  but  no  one  of  the  whole  crowd  —  though  I  say  it,  who 
should  not  ?  —  had  done  so  much  toward  General  Harrison's 
nomination  and  election  as  yours  respectfully.  I  asked  nothing, 
expected  nothing;  but  you.  Governor  Seward,  ought  to  have 
asked  that  I  be  postmaster  of  New  York.  Your  asking  would 
have  been  in  vain,  but  it  would  have  been  an  act  of  grace 
neither  wasted  nor  undeserved. 

"  I  soon  after  started  the  Tribune,  because  I  was  urged  to 
do  so  by  certain  of  your  friends,  and  because  such  a  paper 
was  needed  here.  I  was  promised  certain  pecuniary  aid  in 
so  doing;  it  might  have  been  given  me  without  cost  or  risk 
to  any  one.  All  I  ever  had  was  a  loan  by  piecemeal  of  $1000 
from  James  Coggeshall,  God  bless  his  honored  memory !  I 
did  not  ask  for  this,  and  I  think  it  is  the  one  sole  case  in 
which  I  ever  received  a  pecuniary  favor  from  a  political  asso- 
ciate. I  am  very  thankful  that  he  did  not  die  till  it  was  fully 
repaid. 

"  And  let  me  here  honor  one  grateful  recollection.  When 
the  Whig  Party  under  your  rule  had  offices  to  give,  my  name 
was  never  thought  of;  but  when,  in  1842-3,  we  were  hopelessly 
out  of  power,  I  was  honored  by  the  party  nomination  for 
state  printer.  When  we  came  again  to  have  a  state  printer  to 
elect  as  well  as  nominate,  the  place  went  to  Weed,  as  it 
ought.  Yet  it  was  worth  something  to  know  that  there  was 
once  a  time  when  it  was  not  deemed  too  great  a  sacrifice  to 


390  HISTORY  OF  JOURNALISM 

recognize  me  as  belonging  to  your  household.  If  a  new  office 
had  not  since  been  created  on  purpose  to  give  its  valuable 
patronage  to  H.  J.  Raymond,  and  enable  St.  John  to  show  forth 
his  Times  as  the  organ  of  the  Whig  state  administration,  I 
should  have  been  still  more  grateful. 

"  In  1848  your  star  again  rose,  and  my  warmest  hopes  were 
realized  in  your  election  to  the  Senate.  I  was  no  longer 
needy,  and  had  no  more  claim  than  desire  to  be  recognized  by 
General  Taylor.  I  think  I  had  some  claim  to  forbearance 
from  you.  What  I  received  thereupon  was  a  most  humiliating 
lecture  in  the  shape  of  a  decision  in  the  libel  case  of  Red- 
field  and  Pringle,  and  an  obligation  to  publish  it  in  my  own 
and  the  other  journal  of  our  supposed  firm.  I  thought,  and 
still  think,  this  lecture  needlessly  cruel  and  mortifying.  The 
plaintiffs,  after  using  my  columns  to  the  extent  of  their  needs 
or  desires,  stopped  writing,  and  called  on  me  for  the  name  of 
their  assailant.  I  proffered  it  to  them  —  a  thoroughly  re- 
sponsible name.  They  refused  to  accept  it  unless  it  should 
prove  to  be  one  of  the  four  or  five  first  men  in  Batavia  — 
when  they  had  known  from  the  first  who  it  was,  and  that  it 
was  neither  of  them.  They  would  not  accept  that  which  they 
had  demanded;  they  sued  me,  instead,  for  money,  and  money 
you  were  at  liberty  to  give  them  to  your  heart's  content  — 
I  do  not  think  you  were  at  liberty  to  humiliate  me  in  the  eyes 
of  my  own  and  your  public  as  you  did.  I  think  you  exalted 
your  own  judicial  sternness  and  fearlessness  unduly  at  my  ex- 
pense. I  think  you  had  a  better  occasion  for  the  display  of 
these  qualities  when  Webb  threw  himself  untimely  upon  you 
for  a  pardon  which  he  had  done  all  a  man  could  do  to  demerit. 
(His  paper  is  paying  you  for  it  now.) 

*'  I  have  publicly  set  forth  my  view  of  yours  and  our  duty 
with  respect  to  fusion,  Nebraska,  and  party  designations.  I 
will  not  repeat  any  of  that.  I  have  referred  also  to  Weed's 
reading  me  out  of  the  Whig  Party  —  my  crime  being,  in  this 
as  in  some  other  things,  that  of  doing  to-day  what  more  politic 
persons  will  not  be  ready  to  do  till  to-morrow. 

"  Let  me  speak  of  the  late  canvass.  I  was  once  sent  to 
Congress  for  ninety  days  merely  to  enable  Jim  Brooks  to  se- 
cure a  seat  therein  for  four  years.  I  think  I  never  hinted  to 
any  human  being  that  I  would  have  liked  to  be  put  forward 


APPENDICES  391 

for  any  place;  but  James  W.  White  (you  hardly  know  how 
good  and  true  a  man  he  is)  started  my  name  for  Congress,  and 
Brooks's  packed  delegation  thought  I  could  help  him  through, 
so  I  was  put  on  behind  him.  But  this  last  spring,  after  the 
Nebraska  Question  had  created  a  new  state  of  things  at  the 
North,  one  or  two  personal  friends,  of  no  political  considera- 
tion, suggested  my  name  as  a  candidate  for  governor,  and  I 
did  not  discourage  them.  Soon  the  persons  who  were  after- 
ward mainly  instrumental  in  nominating  Clark  came  about  me 
and  asked  if  I  could  secure  the  Know-Nothing  vote.  I  told 
them  I  neither  could  nor  would  touch  it;  on  the  contrary,  I 
loathed  and  repelled  it.     Thereupon  they  turned  upon   Clark. 

"  I  said  nothing,  did  nothing.  A  hundred  people  asked  me 
who  should  be  run  for  governor.  I  sometimes  indicated  Pat- 
terson; I  never  hinted  at  my  own  name.  But  by-and-by  Weed 
came  down,  and  called  me  to  him  to  tell  me  why  he  could  not 
support  me  for  governor.  (I  had  never  asked  nor  counted 
on  his  support.) 

"  I  am  sure  Weed  did  not  mean  to  humiliate  me,  but  he  did 
it.  The  upshot  of  his  discourse  (very  cautiously  stated)  was 
this:  If  I  were  a  candidate  for  governor,  I  should  beat,  not 
myself  alone,  but  you.  Perhaps  that  was  true;  but,  as  I  had 
in  no  manner  solicited  his  or  your  support,  I  thought  this 
might  have  been  said  to  my  friends  rather  than  to  me.  I  sus- 
pect it  is  true  that  I  could  not  have  been  elected  governor  as 
a  Whig;  but,  had  he  and  you  been  favorable,  there  would 
have  been  a  party  in  the  state  ere  this  which  could  and  would 
have  elected  me  to  any  post  without  injuring  itself  or  endan- 
gering  your   reelection. 

"  It  was  in  vain  that  I  urged  that  I  had  in  no  manner  asked 
a  nomination.  At  length  I  was  nettled  by  his  language  — 
well  intended,  but  very  cutting  as  addressed  by  him  to  me  — 
to  say,  in  substance,  '  Well,  then,  make  Patterson  governor, 
and  try  my  name  for  lieutenant.  To  lose  this  place  is  a  mat- 
ter of  no  importance,  and  we  can  see  whether  I  am  really  so 
odious.' 

"  I  should  have  hated  to  serve  as  lieutenant-governor,  but  I 
should  have  gloried  in  running  for  the  post.  I  want  to  have 
my  enemies  all  upon  me  at  once;  I  am  tired  of  fighting  them 
piecemeal;    and,    though    I    should   have   been   beaten   in    the 


392  HISTORY  OF  JOURNALISM 

canvas?,  i  know  that  my  running  would  have  helped  the  ticket 
and  helped  my  paper. 

"  It  was  thought  best  to  let  the  matter  take  another  course. 
No  other  name  could  have  been  put  on  the  ticket  so  bitterly 
humbling  to  me  as  that  which  was  selected.  The  nomination 
was  given  to  Raymond,  the  fight  left  to  me.  And,  Governor 
Seward,  /  haz'c  made  it,  though  it  be  conceited  in  me  to  say 
so.  What  little  fight  there  has  been  I  have  stirred  up.  Even 
Weed  has  not  been  (I  speak  of  his  paper)  hearty  in  this  con- 
test, while  the  journal  of  the  Whig  lieutenant-governor  has 
taken  care  of  its  own  interests  and  let  the  canvass  take  care 
of  itself,  as  it  early  declared  it  would  do.  That  journal  has 
(because  of  its  milk-and-water  course)  some  twenty  thousand 
subscribers  in  this  city  and  its  suburbs,  and  of  these  twenty 
thousand  I  venture  to  say  more  voted  for  Ullmann  and 
Scroggs  than  for  Clark  and  Raymond;  the  Tribune  (also  be- 
cause of  its  character)  has  but  eight  thousand  subscribers 
within  the  same  radius,  and  I  venture  to  say  that  of  its 
habitual  readers  nine-tenths  voted  for  Clark  and  Raymond  — 
very  few  for  Ullmann  and  Scroggs.  I  had  to  bear  the  brunt 
of  the  contest,  and  take  a  terrible  responsibility  in  order  to 
prevent  the  Whigs  uniting  upon  James  W.  Barker  in  order 
to  defeat  Fernando  Wood.  Had  Barker  been  elected  here, 
neither  you  nor  I  could  walk  these  streets  without  being 
hooted,  and  Know-nothingism  would  have  swept  like  a  prairie 
fire.  I  stopped  Barker's  election  at  the  cost  of  incurring  the 
deadliest  enmity  of  the  defeated  gang,  and  I  have  been  rebuked 
for  it  by  the  lieutenant-governor's  paper.  At  the  critical  mo- 
ment he  came  out  against  John  Wheeler  in  favor  of  Charles 
H.  Marshall  (who  would  have  been  your  deadliest  enemy  in 
the  House)  ;  and  even  your  colonel-general's  paper,  which  was 
even  with  me  in  insisting  that  Wheeler  should  be  returned, 
wheeled  about  at  the  last  moment  and  went  in  for  Marshall, 
the  Tribune  alone  clinging  to  Wheeler  to  the  last.  I  rejoice 
that  they  who  turned  so  suddenly  were  not  able  to  turn  all 
their  readers. 

"  Governor  Seward,  I  know  that  some  of  your  most  cher- 
ished friends  think  me  a  great  obstacle  to  your  advancement 
—  that  John  Schoolcraft,  for  one,  insists  that  you  and  Weed 
shall  not  be  identified  with  me.  I  trust,  after  a  time,  you 
will  not  be.    I  trust  I  shall  never  be  found  in  opposition  to 


APPENDICES 


393 


you;  I  have  no  further  wish  but  to  glide  out  of  the  newspaper 
world  as  quietly  and  as  speedily  as  possible,  join  my  family 
in  Europe,  and,  if  possible,  stay  there  quite  a  time  —  long 
enough  to  cool  my  fevered  brain  and  renovate  my  overtasked 
energies.  All  I  ask  is  that  we  shall  be  counted  even  on  the 
morning  after  the  first  Tuesday  in  February,  as  aforesaid,  and 
that  I  may  thereafter  take  such  course  as  seems  best  without 
reference  to  the  past. 

"  You  have  done  me  acts  of  valued  kindness  in  the  line  of 
your  profession ;  let  me  close  with  the  assurance  that  these 
will  ever  be  gratefully  remembered  by,  "  Yours, 

"  Horace   Greeley." 

APPENDIX  —  NOTE  E 
GROWTH  OF  NEWSPAPERS  FROM  1776  TO  1840 


STATES 


1776 


181O 


1828 


1840 


Maine 

Massachusetts     

New    Hampshire 

Vermont 

Rhode   Island 

Connecticut   

New    York 

New  Jersey 

Pennsylvania     

Delaware    

Maryland     

District    of    Columbia. 

Virginia    

North    Carolina 

South  Carolina 

Georgia     

Florida    

Alabama   

Mississippi     

Louisiana    

Tennessee    

Kentucky   

Ohio    

Indiana   

Michigan   

Illinois     

Missouri   

Arkansas    

Wisconsin    

Iowa    


32 
12 

14 

7 

II 

66 

8 

2 

21 

6 

23 
10 
10 

13 
I 

4 
10 

6 
17 
14 


TOTAL 


37 


359 


29 
78 
17 
21 
24 

161 

22 

185 

4 
37 

9 
34 
20 
16 
18 

2 
10 

6 

9 
8 

23 
66 

17 
2 

4 
5 
I 


861 


36 

91 
27 

30 
16 
ZZ 

245 

zz 

187 

6 
45 
14 
51 
27 
17 
34 
10 
28 
30 
34 
46 
38 
123 
IZ 

Z2 

43 

35 

9 

6 

4 
1,403 


North,  Census  of  1880,  viii,  47. 


394 


HISTORY  OF  JOURNALISM 


»  APPENDIX  —  NOTE  F 

STATISTICS  OF  THE  DAILY  AND  WEEKLY  NEWS- 
PAPERS IN  THE  UNITED  STATES  IN  1840 


FREE  STATES 

Daily 

Weekly 

SLAVE  STATES 

Daily 

Weekly 

California     

Connecticut    .... 
Indiana    

2 
■3 

3 

'? 

4 
34 

9 
12 

2 

2 

31 
1Z 
40 

4 

33 

81 

27 

32 

211 

114 

14 
28 

6 

Alabama    

Arkansas   

Delaware 

Florida 

Georgia    

Kentucky   

Louisiana    

Maryland     

Mississippi 

Missouri    

North  Carolina. 
South   Carolina. 

Tennessee    

Texas   

Virginia  

3 

5 

5 

II 

7 
2 
6 

3 
2 

4 

25 
9 
6 

Illinois   

10 

Iowa    

29 

Maine    

33 
23 
35 
29 
29 

27 
14 

Massachusetts   . . . 

Michigan    

New    Hampshire. 

New    Jersey 

New  York 

Ohio     

Pennsylvania     .  . . 
Rhode    Island. .  . . 

Vermont  

Wisconsin    

44 

47 

Total  

87 

89s 

48 

360 

The  following  table  shows  that  in  1850  the  north  was  rap- 
idly outstripping  the  south  in  newspapers,  periodicals  and  cir- 
culation : 


FREE   STATES 


Number 

Copies  printed 

annually 

7 

761,200 

46 

4,267,932 

107 

5,102,276 

107 

4,316,828 

29 

1,512,800 

49 

4.203,064 

202 

64,820,564 

58 

3,247,736 

38 

3,067,552 

51 

4,098,678 

428 

115,385,473 

261 

30,473,407 

309 

84,898,672 

19 

2,756,950 

35 

2,567,662 

46 

2,665,487 

1,792 

334,146,281 

California    

Connecticut 

Illinois    

Indiana    

Iowa   

Maine   

Massachusetts    ... 

Michigan   

New  Hampshire  . 

New   Jersey    

New   York   

Ohio 

Pennsylvania    .... 
Rhode  Island  .... 

Vermont    

Wisconsin   

Total 


APPENDICES 


395 


SLAVE   STATES 


Copies  printed 
annually 


Alabama    

Arkansas   

Delaware  

Florida  

Kentucky  , 

Louisiana    

Maryland     

Mississippi    .  . . . 

Missouri    

North  Carolina 
South  Carolina 

Tennessee   

Texas   

Virginia     

Georgia    


Total 


2,662,741 

377,000 

421,200 

319,800 

6,582,838 

12,416,224 

19,612,724 

1,752,504 

6.195,560 

2,020,564 

7,145,930 

6,940,750 

1 ,296,924 

9,223,068 

4,070,868 


81,038,695 


Helper,  The  Impending  Crisis,  290. 


ILLITERATE  WHITE  ADULTS  IN  THE  FREE  AND 
IN  THE  SLAVE  STATES  — 1850 


FREE   STATES 


Foreign 


California    

Connecticut 

Illinois    

Indiana    

Iowa   

Maine  

Massachusetts    . . . 

Michigan   

New  Hampshire   . 
New    Jersey    . . . . 

New   York    

Ohio 

Pennsylvania    .  . . . 
Rhode   Island    . . . 

Vermont    

Wisconsin   

TOTAL 


2,917 
4,013 
5,947 
3,265 
1,077 
4,148 

26484 
3,009 
2,064 
5,878 

68,052 
9,062 

24,989 
2,359 
5,624 
4,902 


173,790 


39^ 


HISTORY  OF  JOURNALISM 


SLAVE  STATES 


Foreign 


Alabama    

Arkansas  

Delaware  

Florida    

Georgia    

Kentucky    

Louisiana    

Maryland    

Mississippi    

Missouri    

North    Carolina    

South    Carolina    

Tennessee    

Texas   

Virginia 

TOTAL  

Helper,  Impending  Crisis,  291, 


33,618 

16,792 

4,132 

3,564 

40,794 

64,340 
14,950 
17,364 
13,324 
34,420 
73,226 
15,580 
77,017 
8,037 
75,868 


493,026 


139 
27 

404 

295 

406 

2,347 
6,271 

3451 
81 

1,861 
340 
104 

505 
2,488 

1,137 


19,856 


APPENDIX  —  NOTE  G 

For  the  year  ending  June  30,  18S2 

Postage  paid 
on  Daily  and  Weekly 
editions 
Newspapers 
New    York    Tribune $27,290.56 


Postage  paid  on 
Daily   and 
Newspapers  Weekly  edi- 

tions 

The    New    York    Herald $21,930.78 

The  Inter-Ocean 16,609.36 

The  St.  Louis  Globe-Democrat 16,386.60 

The  New   York   Sun 14,769.66 

The    New    York    Times 14,598.56 

The    Cincinnati    Enquirer 13,154.42 

The    St.    Louis    Republican 11,799.96 

The    Toledo    Blade 9,817.42 

The   St.   Paul  Pioneer  Press 9,209.52 

The    Chicago    News 7,789.14 

The    Louisville    Courier-Journal 7,305.06 

The    Chicago    Times 6,581.10 

The  Cincinnati  Gazette 6,561.44 

The    Chicago    Tribune 5,644.02 

The   Boston   Journal 5,555-42 


APPENDICES  397 

The  Detroit  Free  Press 5,308.98 

The   Kansas   City    Times 5,230.23 

The  Philadelphia  Record 5,087.44 

The    Cleveland    Leader 4474.48 

The    Cincinnati    Commercial 4,154.48 

The  Philadelphia   Times. 3,883.78 

The  Detroit  Post  and  Tribune 3,490.22 

The   Boston   Herald 3,351-74 

The    Philadelphia   Press 2,858.68 

The  Cleveland  Herald 2,595.10 

The   Cincinnati   Times-Star 2,575.78 

The    Boston    Advertiser 1,955.12 

Pamphlet,  N.  Y.  Tribune,  22. 


APPENDIX  —  NOTE  H 

ZENGER'S  TRIAL 

"Viewed  in  the  light  of  that  day,  before  the  colonies  had 
learned  the  use  and  power  of  newspapers,  before  John  Wilkes 
had  defied  parliament  and  crown  in  behalf  of  the  right  to 
deal  in  type  with  public  questions,  the  case  and  its  results 
marked  a  complete  change  in  theory  and  practice.  It  was  the 
development  of  a  new  motor  in  affairs.  It  was  the  creation 
of  an  implement  for  the  people,  which  rulers  and  courts  must 
forever  regard.  The  Christian  era  doubtless  would  have  come 
without  John  the  Baptist  and  his  preaching.  So  American  in- 
dependence would  have  been  wrought  out,  without  this  triumph 
for  the  liberty  of  printing  the  truth.  But  as  events  have  oc- 
curred, the  trial  of  Zenger  and  his  acquittal  stand  forth  as  the 
one  incident  which  molded  opinions,  which  strengthened  cour- 
age, which  crystallized  purpose  on  this  continent  in  the  grand 
movement  whose  termination  perhaps  no  man  foresaw,  whose 
direction  few  suggested  above  a  whisper,  and  yet  whose  logic 
was  as  direct  as  the  laws  of  the  universe. 

"  Why  should  the  press  be  wholly  free,  if  this  continent  was 
to  bow  before  a  king  seated  beyond  the  ocean,  and  to  receive 
its  statutes  from  a  parliament  in  which  it  could  have  no  rep- 
resentatives? A  generation  was  required  for  the  question  to 
stir  men's  minds,  and  to  bring  them  face  to  face  with  the 
answer.  If  Zenger  had  been  convicted,  no  estimate  can  de- 
termine the  time  which  would  have  been  demanded  to  strike 

1  Roberts,  New  York,  i.,  277,  278. 


398  HISTORY  OF  JOURNALISM 

the   fetters   from   discussion,   and  therefore   from  deliberation 
and  action  for  the  rights  of  the  people. 

"  This  verdict  in  New  York  was  an  achievement  for  the 
freedom  of  the  press,  and  so  for  the  liberty  of  man,  of  which 
the  colonies  soon  began  to  reap  the  benefit,  and  for  which  the 
thought  and  speech  of  mankind  all  over  the  globe  are  braver 
and  more  affluent  of  noble  life." 


APPENDIX  I 
THE  SUN-HERALD  MERGER 

The  merging  of  the  New  York  Herald  in  the  Sun  has  brought 
to  a  dramatic  close  the  story  of  the  Herald  and  that  chapter  of 
American  journalism  which  deals  with  the  two  Bennetts. 
Frank  A.  Munsey,  whose  ownership  of  both  properties  led  to 
their  combination,  has,  unlike  most  of  the  great  editors  of  the 
country,  been  associated  with  no  one  great  newspaper.  Indeed 
he  has  reversed  the  process  by  which  most  editors  have  obtained 
influence.  In  combining  the  Sun  and  the  Herald  in  one  sheet, 
both  Dana  and  Bennett  become  the  pedestal  for  his  fame.  At 
a  time  when  patriotic  utterance  is  much  needed  in  this  country, 
the  Sun  has  assumed  a  conspicuous  leadership.  It  can  hardly 
be  expected  that  the  addition  of  the  Herald  will  do  aught  but 
strengthen  its  position. 


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INDEX 


Abell,  Arunah  S.,  248,  249, 

250,  251 
Abolition,  255,  297 
Abolitionists,  224,  332 
Abolition  Riots,  250 
Adams,  Abijah,  184,  185 
Adams,  Brooks  (cited),  29 
Adams,  Charles  F.,  281 
Adams,      Charles      Francis 

(quoted),  105 
Adams,  Henry  (quoted),  188 
Adams,  John,  86,  100,  103, 
106,  no,  112,  113, 
114,  117,  141,  148, 
152,  160,  169,  174, 
175,  176,  177,  178, 
180,    181,    182,    188, 

194,    197 
Adams,      John,      Life      of 

(cited),  147 
Adams,     John,     Works     of 

(quoted),  181 
Adams,   John   Quincy,    183, 

234 

Adams,  Samuel,  72,  79,  80, 
81,  93,  100,  loi,  102, 
103,  106,  109,  no, 
III,  n3,  114,  140, 
141,  148,  156,  176, 
189,    298,    307 

Addison,  Joseph,  2"],  31,  44, 
210,  336 

Advertisements,  242 

42g 


Advertiser,  Baltimore,  133 
Boston,  236 
Commercial,    New    York, 

167,  244,  350 
Daily    (Dunlap    &    Clay- 
poole),  172 
New  York,  156,  160,  166 
Philadelphia,  187 
General,  Philadelphia,  133, 

144,   170 
Independent,    Boston,    73, 

79,  80 
Public,  London,  149 
Washington,  233 
Weekly,  105 
Boston,  138 
Portsmouth,  98 
Advocate,  New  York,  258 
Albany,  Congress  at,  70 
Regency,  274 
Argus,  274 
Evening  Journal,  239,  275, 

284,  319 
Jeffersonian,  275 
Journal,  221 
Alden,  J.  M.  (cited),  2 
Alexander,  De  Alva  S.  (cit- 
ed), 193 
(quoted),  274,  282,  321 
(quoted),  324 
Alexander,  James,  51 
Alien  Act,  113,  169,  175,  176, 
177,    178,    180,    181, 
183,    189,    190,    194, 
197 


430 


INDEX 


Alien  law,  232 

Allen,  Ethan,  126,  127 

"  Almanac,  Poor  Richard's," 

64 
American,  Baltimore,  2yy 
New  York,  2y'/,  2,72 
Annual  Register,  194 
Citizen,  192 
Magazine      &      Historical 

Chronicle,  91 
Weekly  Mercury,  40,  42, 

63 

Whig,  87 

Ames,  Fisher,  188 
Amphictyons,  62 
Andre,  Major,  142 
Andrews,  Alexander  (cited), 

3,  16,  24 
Andros,  Edmund,  10 
Annapolis,  Md.,  63 
Anthony,  Henry  B.,  239 
Anti-slavery  publications, 

223 
Appeal,  from  the  Country  to 

the  City,  14 
Appleton's    Encyclopedia 

(quoted),  314 
Areopagitica,  7 
Argus,  Albany,  274 
Frankfort  (Ky.),  235 
Philadelphia,  187 
"Argument,  War  of,"  117 
Arithmetic,  first  published  in 

New  York  colony,  49 
Armbruster,  68 
Armstrong,  Edward  (cited), 

36 

Army,  Continental,  116 
Asia  frigate,  124 
Astor,  W.  B.,  311 


Atlantic  Monthly  (quoted), 
300 

Atlas,  Boston,  239 

Aurora,  Philadelphia,  170, 
171,  172,  173,  174, 
175,  177,  181,  189, 
192,    194,    239 

B 

Bache,    Benjamin    Franklin, 
170,    171,    172,    173, 
175,    178,    181,    187 
Bache,  Richard,  94,  131 
Bacon,  iii 

Bailey,  Dr.  (quoted),  287 
Balance    (Hudson,   N.   Y.), 

196 
Baltimore  Advertiser,  133 
American,  2yy 
Sun,  250,  251,  253 
Whig  Club,  94 
Bancroft,  George  (cited),  62 
Bancroft,  George   (quoted), 

I,  97 
Bank  of  the  United  States, 

155 
Barber,  Henry,  133 

Barnes,  Thurlow  Weed 
(quoted),  321 

Barry,  John  Stetson  (quot- 
ed), 17 

Bassett,  John  S.  (quoted), 
180 

Bayard,  Col.  Nicholas,  52 

Beach,  Moses  S.,  338 

Bellomont,  Earl  of,  47 

Bennett,  James  Gordon,  142, 
143,  239,  246,  247, 
256,  274,  314,  337, 
340,    371 


INDEX 


431 


Bennett,  James  Gordon,  Jr., 

341,  342 

Bentham,  Jeremy,  349,  351 

Benton,  Thomas  E.,  211 

Berkley,  Governor,  of  Vir- 
ginia, 67,  298 

Bernard,  Governor  Francis, 
loi,  103,  112 

Bigelow,  John,  362 

Bill  of  Rights,  157 

Binney,  Horace  (quoted),  56 

Birney,  James  Gillespie,  210, 
226,  227,  228,  303 

Birney,  William  (quoted), 
226 

Bismarck  (quoted),  307 

Blackstone,  ill 

Blaine,  James  G.,  280,  326, 

332 
Blair,  Francis  P.,  235,  2};j 
Bolingbroke,  in 
Bolton,  Nathaniel,  213 
Bolton,     Nathaniel     (cited), 

214 
Bond  Issue,  364,  365 
Booth,  John  Wilkes,  324 
Booth,  Mary  L.  (cited),  90, 

91 

Boston,  Newspapers  in,  64 

"  Boston  Tea-Party,"  103 
Advertiser,  236 
Atlas,  239 
Chronicle,  82,  84 
Evening  Post,  64,  69,  70, 

72,  73 

Galaxy,  239 

Gazette,  28,  29,  31,  32,  63, 
70,  71,  72,  80,  85,  92, 
95,  100,  102,  103,  104, 
105,    107,    108,    109, 


no.    III,    112,    113, 
114,    138,    142,    160, 
174,    176 
Boston,  Independent  Adver- 
tiser, 73,  79,  80,  102, 
103 
Chronicle,  145,  146,  184 
News-Letter,   25,   26,    27, 
32,  63,  69,  81,  82,  no 
Puhlick   Occurrances,  270 
Times,  253 

Weekly  Advertiser,  138 
Post  Boy,  68 
Bostonian,  243 
Botts,  Congressman,  253 
Bowles,    Samuel,    Jr.,    327, 

328,  343»  344 
Bowles,    Samuel,   the   elder, 

244,  293,  299 
Boynton,      Henry      Walcott 

(cited),  336 
Brackenridge,  H.  H.,  203 
Brackenridge,  Hugh,  161 
Bradford,    Andrew,    39,   40, 

42,  43.  44 
Bradford,  John,  205 
Bradford,  Thomas,  6y 
Bradford,   William,    36,   37, 

38,  39,  40,  41,  42,  44, 

46,  47,  48,  52,  57>  91 
Bradford,       William,       the 

younger,   6"/ 
Bradford's  Journal,  133 
Brannan,  Samuel,  373 
Brewster,  William,  i,  5,  36 
Brisbane,  Alfred,  278 
Brisbane,  Arthur,  299 
British  Apollo,  London,  28 
Brooker,  William,  28,  29,  31 
"  Brook  Farm  "  Colony,  337 


432 


INDEX 


Brooklyn  Eagle,  ^22 
Brooks,  Phillips,  355 
Brown,  Benjamin  Gratz,  330 
Brown,  Rev.  John  W.,  209 
Brown,        William        Hand 

(cited),  66 
Bryan,         Wilhelmus         B. 

(cited),  232,  233 
Bryant,  William  Cullen,  262, 

293.    294,    314,    331, 

350,  356 
Bryce,  Viscount  James,  348, 

,  351.  354,  355 
Buckingham,  Joseph  T.,  239, 

Buckingham,       Joseph       T. 

(quoted),  115 
Buffalo    (city),   New  York, 

337 
Buffy,   Comte  de   (quoted), 

47 
Bullitt,  Alexander,  237 

Bull  Run,  Battle  of,  314 

Burke,  Edmund,  iii 

Burke,  Edmund  (cited),  59 

Burr,  Aaron,  162,  188,  192, 

193,  199,  207,  208,  378 

Burr,  Reverend  Aaron,  87 

Butters,  Nathaniel,  3 


Cadwalader,  Judge  (quot- 
ed), 56 

Calhoun,  John  C,  235,  236, 
259,  304 

Calif ornian,  374 

California  Star,  373,  374 

Callender,  James  Thompson, 
169,  194 


Campbell,   Douglas    (cited), 

4 
Campbell,  John,  24,  25,  28, 

29,  31,  32 

Canon  and  Feudal  Law,  104 
Carlisle,  John  G.,  365,  366 
Carlyle,  Edward  I.   (cited), 

169 
Carpenter,  Joseph,  209 
Carrington,  Colonel,  158 
Gary,   Edward    (cited),   323 
Casey,  J.  P.,  375 
Censor,  Political,  169 
Censorship  of  the  press,  4, 

6,8 
Cent,  Philadelphia,  242,  260 
Centinel,  Massachusetts,  142, 

143 

Centinel  of  Northwest  Ter- 
ritory, 209 

Chalmers,  George  (cited),  3, 

63 

Charles  II,  King  of  England, 

6 
Charless,  Joseph,  215 
Charleston,   South   Carolina, 

65,  258 
Charleston  Courier,  305 

Mercury,  304,  305,  312 
Chase,  Judge,  182,  194 
Cheetham,  James,   192,  193, 

238 
Cheetham,  James   (quoted), 

131 
Chicago,  255 

Convention,  293 

Republican,  338 

Tribune,    215,    318,    331, 

333,  343 
Chief  Justices,  48,  51,  52 


INDEX 


433 


Childs,  George  W.,  251,  252 

Chopin,  367 

Chronicle,  Boston,  82,  84 

London,  83 

New  York,  192 

Pennsylvania,  93 

Independent,  Boston,   145, 
146,  184 
Cicero  (cited),  2,  3 
Cincinnati  Convention,  331 

Commercial,  331,  343,  344 

Gazette,  210,  22y 

Mercury,  209 

Post,  227 

Republican,  22y 

Whig,  227 
Citizen,  New  York,  238 

American,  192 
City  and  Country  News,  13 
City  Intelligence,  London,  28 
Clark,  Gilbert  J.,  192 

Myron  H.,  288,  289 
Clay  Compromise,  286 
Clay,  Henry,  2S2»  277,  333 
Claypoole,  133,  144,  172 
Cleveland,  Grover,  365,  366 
Cleveland  (Ohio),  334 

Leader,  334,  335 
Clinton,  George,  90,  132,  156 
Clinton,  George,  Public  Pa- 
pers (cited),  132,  133 
Cobbett,  William  (cited),  17 
Cobbett,   William,   168,   169, 

170,   179,  194 
Cobsbn,  John,  41 
Coffey,  Titian  J.,  339 
Golden,  Cadwallader,  119 
Coleman,  William,  150,  192, 
193.     197,    238,    258, 
350.    356 


Coles,  Edward,  298,  303 
Colfax,  Schuyler,  294,  318 
College,  Dickinson,  151 
Collins,  Lsaac,  128 
Colonial  Congress,  70 
Colton,  Walter  (cited),  374 
Columbia,  schooner,  152 
Columbia,     South    Carolina, 

259 

University,  367 

Observer,  234 
Commercial,  Cincinnati,  331, 

343.  344 
Commercial  Advertiser,  New 

York,   167,  244,  258, 

262,  277,  350 

Commons     (Third    Estate), 

59 

"  Common  Sense,"  121,  131 

Confiscation  Act,  316 

Congress,  Colonial,  70 
General,  in  America,  61 

"  Congress  of  American 
States,"  109 

Congressional  Globe,  Wash- 
ington, 235,  236,  237 

Congressional  Record,  2^7 

Connecticut      Courant,      95, 
138,  167 
Gazette,  95,  96,  97 

Constitution,  135,  137,  143, 
144,  145,  146,  147, 
148,  150,  151,  152, 
166 

Continental  Army,  116 

Conway,  Moncure  D.  (quot- 
ed), 131 

Conwell,  Christopher  C,  242, 
260 

Cook,  Daniel  Pope,  214 


434 


INDEX 


Cooke,  George  W.  (quoted), 

14 
Cooper,  Thomas,  182,  183 

Copyright,  131 

Corruption   in   politics,   327, 

339,  350,  357 
Cosby,  Governor,  48,  49,  50, 

Coshocton   (Ohio)   Republic 
can,  334 
^^hig,  334 
"  Council  Records  "  (quoted) 

69 
Council      of      New      York 
Colony,  Minutes, 

cited,  46 
Counterfeiting,  139 
Courant,     Connecticut,     95, 
138,   167 
Hartford,  95 
Daily     of     London,     28, 

145 
New  England,  31,  32,  33, 

34,  44,  68 
Courier,  Charleston,  305 
and  Enquirer,  New  York, 
239,    258,    277,    279, 

293 
Courier- Journal,    Louisville, 

343, 
Coxe,  Daniel,  73 
Crawford,  Mary  C.  (cited) 

30 
"Crisis,"  132 
Croswell,  Edwin,  274 
Croswell,   Harry,    179,    193, 

197 
Curtis,      George      William, 

323 
Gushing,  Thomas,  no 


D 

Daily   Newspapers,  First  in 

London,  1702,  25,  28 

Daily  Advertiser,  Dunlap  & 

Claypoole,  172 
Daily  Advertiser,  New  York, 
156,  160,  166 
Courant,  London,  28,  145 
Evening      Bulletin,      San 

Francisco,  375 
News,  London,  349,  '353 
Patriotic    Register,     New 

York,  145 
Transcript,     Philadelphia, 

249 
Dana,  C.  A.,  284,  336,  342 

Dana,  Life  of   (cited),  339 
Danville   Convention,   204 
Dartmouth,  Lord,  120 
Daveiss,  Joseph  H.,  206,  207 
Davenant,  Charles,  62 
Davis,  Jefferson,  304,  322 
Day,  Benjamin  H.,  244,  247, 

248 
Defoe,  Daniel,  25 
DeForrest,  Henry,  68 
DeLancey,  James,  48,  51,  52 
Democrats,    146,    160,    163, 
194,    197,    207,    242, 
274,    328,    330,    334» 

349,   355,    357 
DeNoyellis,  90 
DeQuincey,  Thomas,  355 
DeTocqueville  (quoted),  241 
Detroit  Free  Press,  215 
Detroit  Tribune,  215 
Dickinson,  John,  82,  151 
Dickinson  College,  151 
Dionysius   of   Halicamassus 

(cited),  2 


INDEX 


435 


Dispatch,  Evening,  St.  Louis, 

362 
Disraeli,  Isaac,  3,  6 
Dix,  John  A.,  311,  312 
Domestic  Intelligence,  13,  16, 

17 
Dongan,  Governor,  46 
Douglas,  Frederick,  229 
Douglas,    Stephen    A.,    286, 

292 
Draft  riots,  320 
Drake,   Samuel   G.    (cited), 

24 
Drane,  William  L.,  249 
Draper,  John,  82 
Draper,  Mrs.  Richard,  82 
Draper,  Richard,  82 
Draper* s  Gazette,  iii 
Duane,    William,    175,    180, 

181,    183,    189,    192, 

230,   238,   361 
Duane,  William  J.,  184 
Duels,  193,   199,  207,  372 
Duer,  William,  150 
Duniway,  Clyde  A.  (cited), 

68 
Dunlap,  133,  144,  172 
Dunton,  John,  17 
Dyer,  23 

E 

Eagle,  Brooklyn,  322 
Earl,  of  Bellomont,  47 
Early,  General  Jubal  A.,  323 
East      Poultney,     Vermont, 

Northern     Spectator, 

271 
Edes,    Benjamin,    84,     100, 

104,    III,    112,    113, 

114,   115,   141,   189 


Edes,  Benjamin,  the  younger, 
114 

Edes,  Peter,  114 

Edinburgh,  Journal  of  Sci- 
ence, 248 

Editorial  Ethical  Rules,  251, 
252,  253 

Editorial  paragraph,  64 

Edwards,  George  William 
(cited),  78 

Effingham,  Lord,  governor 
of  Virginia,  6y 

Eggleston,  George  Gary,  364 

Eggleston,  George  Gary 
(cited),  362 

Elizabeth,  Queen,  3,  4 

Emancipation   Proclamation, 

319 
Emerson,  Ralph  Waldo,  355 
Enquirer,  New  York,  258 

Richmond,  239,  303 
Epitaph,  67 

"  Era  of  Good  Feeling,"  144 
Erie,  Pennsylvania,  Gazette, 

Essex  Journal,  86 

Ethics,   Editorial,   251,   252, 

253 

Evans,  George  O.,  339 

Evening  Bulletin,  Daily,  San 

Francisco,  375 
Evening  Dispatch,  St.  Louis, 

362 
Evening     Journal,     Albany, 

239,  275,  284,  319 
New  York,  299,  372 
Evening   Post,    Boston,    64, 

69,  70,  72,  73 
London,  28 

New  York,  68,  150,  155, 


43^ 


INDEX 


191,     192,    193,    197, 
243,    244,    258,    262, 
277,    285,    343,    349, 
356,  362,  363 
Philadelphia,  134 
St.  Louis,  362 
Sun,  New  York,  363 
World,    New    York,    363, 

364 
Examiner,    Richmond,    194, 

312 
Express,    New    York,    2yy, 

285 


Fairbanks,  Richard,  24 
Fairhaven   Gazette,   185 
"Farmers'  Letters,"   151 
"  Father  of  the  Revolution," 

79,  100,  104,  106 
"  Federalist,"  144,  145,  146, 

149,  150,  151 
Federalist,  Ohio,  210 
Federalist,  Washington,  233 
Federalists,    142,    143,    144, 

146,    148,    150,    154, 

155,    156,    159.     160, 
161,    167,    169,    171, 

i75»  T^77,  179.  180, 

186,  187,  188,  189, 

191,  194,  195,  197, 

199,  203,  206,  242, 

373 
Felt,  Joseph  B.   (cited),  21 

Female   Tatler,   London,   28 

Fenian,  150 

Fenno,  John,  154,  155,  159, 
160,  161,  162,  163, 
166,     167,     172,     175 


Fillmore,   Millard,  237,  312 

First  newspaper  on  Ameri- 
can continent,  Puhlick 
Occurances,    19 

First  printing  press  in  Amer- 
ica—1639,  5 

Fisk,  James,  Jr.,  328 

Fiske,  John,  255 

Fiske,  John  (cited),  55,  116, 
118,  149 

Fleet,  Thomas,  69,  70 

Fleming,  John,  83 

Fletcher,  Benjamin,  Gov- 
ernor of  New  York 
Colony,   39,  46,  47 

Flying  Post,  24,  26,  28 

Force,  Peter,  234 

Ford,  Henry  Jones  (cited), 
190 

Forney,  John  W.,  239,  347 

Fort  Wayne  Sentinel,  357 

Foster,  William  Eaton 
(cited),  93 

Fourier,  278 

Fourth  Estate,  59,  76 

Fowle,  Daniel,  81,  98 

Fowle,  John,  79 

Fowle,  Zechariah,  84 

Fox  Bourne,  H.  R.  (cited), 

25 
France,  116 

Frankfort  (Ky.)  Argus,  235 
Frankfort  (Ky.)  Palladium, 

207 
Franklin,  Benjamin,  30,  32, 

33.  34,  37,  40,  42,  43, 
44,  51,  62,  64,  65,  66, 

70,  71,  73,  74,  78,  86, 
91,  93,  94,  100,  107, 
131,    140,    141,    147, 


INDEX 


437 


170,  .181,    183,    251, 

256,  324.  346 
Franklin,  James,  28,  30,  31, 

32,  33»  34,  43,  44,  58, 

68,  69,  75 
Franklin,    James,    Jr.,    66 
Franklin,  Josiah,  30,   31 
Franklin's        Autobiography 

(quoted),   74 
Franklin's    Works     (cited), 

65,66 
Freemasons,  221 
Free  Press,  Detroit,  215 
Free-Soil  Party,  279,  334 
Free-Soil  States,  297 
Free  Trade  Liberals,  331 
Freedom  of  the  Press,  69 
Freehold,    New  Jersey,    123 
Freeman,  Edmund,  209 
Freeman's  Journal,  209 
Fremont,  J.  C,  319 
French  Revolution,  170 
Freneau,  Philip,  91,  128,  152, 

160,    161,    162,     163, 

164,     165,     166,    173, 

361 
Frothingham,  David,  187 
Frothingham,  Richard 

(cited),    61,    62,    72, 

73 
Fuller,  Margaret,  278 


Gage,  General,  119 
Gaine,  Hugh,  87,  90,  91,  119, 
120,    127,    128,    129, 

134 
Galaxy,  Boston,  239 


Galaxy,  New  England,  258 
Gales,  Joseph,  2:i^2,  233,  234, 

237 
Gallagher,   William   D.,   209 
Galloway  &  Wharton,  93 
Garrison,  William  Lloyd,  15, 
222,    223,    226,    228, 
267,  299 
Gazettes,  3 

Gazette,  Boston,  28,  29,  31, 
32,  63,  70,  71,  72,  80, 
85,  92,  95,   100,   102, 
103,    104,    105,    107, 
108,    109,    no,    III, 
112,    113,    114,    138, 
142,  160,  174,  176 
Gazette,  Cincinnati,  210,  227 
Connecticut,  95,  96,  97 
Draper's,  in 
Erie,  Pa.,  2^2 
Fairhaven,  185 
Hamilton,  2og 
Independent,  92 
Indiana,  212 
Indianapolis,  213 
Kentucky,  205,  206,  212 
London,  22,  28,  46 
Maryland,  63,  68 
Massachusetts f    105,    no, 

III 
Miami,  209 
Missouri,  21^ 
Nashville,  219 
National,  1^2 
National,         Philadelphia, 

161,    162,    163,    165 
New  Hampshire,  98,   119 
New  Jersey,  128,  129 
New    London,    95,    97 
New  York,  39,  62,,  67,  91, 


438 


INDEX 


92,  93,  120,  122,  128, 

134,  149 
Pennsylvania,  43,   55,  63, 

64,  70.  80,  133 
Pittsburgh,  202,  203,  204 
Porcupine's,   169 
Providence,  93,   119 
^Royal,   125,   128 

Pennsylvania,  134 
St.  Mary's,  68 
Scioto,   209 
South  Carolina,  63,  65 
of  the  United  States,  152, 

154,    165,    160,   167 
Virginia,  64,  67 
Universal,       Philadelphia, 

232,  233^ 
W orkingman' s ,  220 
Gazetteer,   New   York,   123, 
124 
Independent,  149 
General    Advertiser,    Phila- 
delphia, 133,  144,  170 
General  Congress  in  Amer- 
ica, 61 
Postscript,  London,  28 
Re^nark,  London,  28 
Genet,.  151,  164,  165,  170 
Genius  of  Universal  Eman- 
cipation, 22^ 
German  papers,  68 
Gerry,   Elbridge,   195 
Gibbs,  George  (quoted),  187, 

188 
Gill,  John,  84,  100,  104,  III, 

112,   113,    114,   189 
Globe,     New      York,      167, 

260 
Globe,  Washington,  235,  236, 

237 


Congressional,     Washing- 
ton, 235,  236,  237 
Goddard,    William,    93,    94, 

133 

Godkin,    Edwin    Lawrence, 

^  343,  348,  349,  366 
Godwin,     Parke     (quoted), 

294 
Gordon,   William    (quoted), 

67 

Gordy,    John    P.    (quoted), 

191 
Gore,  Christopher,  154 
Gouverneur,  Abraham,  47 
Governors,  Colonial,  39,  42, 

61,  63 
Grady,  Henry  W.,  343,  344 
Grant,  U.  S.,  321,  323,  331, 

338,  339,  340 
Greeley,  Horace,  64,  65,  142, 
239,    243,    247,    269, 
281,    282,    295,    299, 

309,    325,    335,    340, 
347,  361,  362,  371 
Green  Family  Tree,  96 
Green,  Duff,  234,  235 
Green,  Jonas,  68 
Green,  Samuel,  96 
Green,  Thomas,  95 
Greenleaf,  Joseph,  145 
Greenleaf,  Thomas,  145,  149, 

187 

Greensboro     (North     Caro- 
lina) Patriot,  301 
Griswold,  R.  W.,  282 
Growden,  Joseph,  38 
Gurowski,   Count,  267,   313 

H 

"Hail  Columbia,"  171 


INDEX 


439 


"  Halifax  Gentleman,"  93 

Halleck,  General,  248 

Halstead,  Murat,  344 

Hamblin,  Thomas  H.,  263 

Hamilton,  Alexander,  74, 
137,  142,  144,  145, 
146,  148,  149,  150, 
151,  152,  153,  154, 
i55»  156,  159,  160, 
161,  162,  163,  164, 
166,  167,  177,  179, 
181,  186,  187,  188, 
189,  190,  193,  197, 
198,  199,  200,  207, 
230,    235,    350 

Hamilton,  Allan  M. 

(quoted),   197,   198 

Hamilton,  Andrew,  51,  52, 
53.  54,  55,  56,  60,  98, 
179,  197,  198 

Hamilton  Gazette,  209 

Hammond,  Charles,  209, 
210,  227 

Hampden,  John,  92 

Hancock,  John,  114 

Handbills,  88 

Harbor  Association,  New 
York,  248 

Harper's  Weekly,  323 

Harrington,  11 1 

Harris,  Benjamin,  12,  13,  14, 
16,  17,  18,  19,  20,  21, 
22,  58,  140,  141,  198, 
270,  298,  377 

Harrison,  C.  C.  (quoted), 
125,  129 

Harrison,  William  Henry, 
236,  239,  277 

Hartford  Courant,  95 

Harvard  College,  9,  337 


Hay-Nicolay    (quoted),   322 
Hayne,  Robert  Young,  212 
Hearst,    William    Randolph, 
307,    342,    370,    371, 

372,   376 
"Hell-Fire  Club,"  32 
Helper,  Hinton  Rowan,  300 
Helper,       Hinton       Rowan 

(quoted),  301 
Henry  VH  of  England,  yy 
Herald,  Newburyport 

(Mass.),  223 
New  York,  245,  249,  256, 

2yy,    2S2,    283,    311, 

317,  341 
Paris,  341  ^ 

San  Francisco,  375,  376 

Herald  of  Liberty,  203 

Herschel,  Sir  John,  247,  248 

Historical  Magazine  (cited), 

27,  183 
Hittell,  Theodore  H.  (cited), 

374 
Hogendorp,  157 
Holland  (Netherlands),  4 
Hollister,         Ovando         J. 

(quoted),    294,    318, 

319 
Holt,  John,  88,  89,  90,  91, 

92,  93,  95,   132,   133, 

145 
Holt,  Lord  Chief  Justice,  52 

Hone,  Philip,  299 

Hone,  Philip   (quoted),  262 

Hopkins,  Stephen,  93 

Hopkinson,  Francis,   157 

Horace  (cited),  3 

Hosmer,      James      Kendall, 

(quoted),  109 

Houghton,  Richard,  239 


440 


INDEX 


Howe,  General,  119 
Howell,  T.  B.  (cited),  52 
Hudson,    Frederic     (cited), 

46,  143,  144,  235 
Hudson  Balance,  196 
Hume,  David   (quoted),  62 
Humes,    Gregory    T.,    381, 

382 
Hunter,  William,  207 
Huske,  Ellis,  68 
Hutchinson,  Governor 

Thomas,  104,  no,  in 
Hutchinson,  Mrs.,  9 


Illinois,   297 

Illinois,    Early    Newspapers 

in,  214 
Illinois  Intelligencer,  214 
Immigration,   255 
Independent  Advertiser, 

Boston,    73,    79,    80, 
102,  103 
Chronicle,     Boston,     145, 

146,  184 
Gazette,  92 

Gazetteer,  New  York,  149 
lournal.  New  York,  149 
Rejector,  87,  128 
Indiana,  297 
Indiana  Gazette,  212 

Register,  213 
Indianapolis  Gazette,  213 
Indians,  47,  61,  70 
Inoculation,  32 
Intelligencer,  Illinois,  214 
Kennebec  (Maine),  114 
National,         Washington, 
233,    234,    236,    237, 

317 


Jackson,  Andrew,  258,  315 
James,    William,    348,    350, 

352 

James  I,  King  of  England,  3 

James  II,  King  of  England, 
8,  10 

Jay,  John,  123,  149,  150,  168, 
177,  191 

Jefferson,  Thomas,  74,  79, 
97,  148,  162,  164,  157, 
158,  159,  160,  161, 
162,  163,  165,  166, 
177,  178,  183,  186, 
187,  189,  194,  195, 
197,  200,  203,  207, 
208,  230,  232,  233, 
235,  238,  295,  296, 
299 

Jefferson,  Works  of  (cited), 

157,  158,  159 
(quoted),  166,  195,  196 
Jeffersonian    (Albany),   275 
Jeffreys,  Recorder,  14,  17 
Johnson,  Andrew,  303,  325, 

326 
Johnson,   Stephen,  97 
"  Join  or  Die,"  86 
Jones,  George,  284,  342 
Jones,  Thomas,  87,  88,  89, 

121,  122 
Journal,  of  New  York  Pro- 
visional Congress 
(quoted),  122 
lournal,  Albany,  221 
Bradford's,  133 
Essex,  86 

Evening,  Albany,  239,  275, 
284,  319 


INDEX 


441 


New  York,  299,  372 
Freeman's,  209 
Independent,    New    York, 

149 
Louisville,  239,   306 
Manumission,  222 
Maryland,  94,  133 
National,  Washington,  D. 

C,  234 
New  York,  89,  90,  92,  145, 

146,  380 
of  Commerce,  New  York, 

224,    248,    277,    285, 

322 
Pennsylvania,  67 
Providence,  239 
Republican,   142 
Revived,  New  York,  92 
Vermont,  185 
Weekly,    New    York,    48, 

59,  60,  64 
"Junius,"  149 

K 

Kahn,  Otto  H.,  367 
Kansas,  admission  of,  291 
Kansas    City  —  politics,    357 
Kansas  City  Star,  356 
Kant,  Immanuel,  355 
Keimer,  Samuel,  40,  42,  43 
Keith,  Sir  William,  42 
Kemble,  339 

Kendall,  Amos,  224,  235,  315 
Kennebec    (Maine),   Intelli- 
gencer, 114 
Kent,  Chancellor,  198 
Kentucky  Gazette,  205,  206, 

212 
Kentucky  Historical  Society 
Register  (cited),  208 


"  Kentucky,  Pioneer  Press 
of "    (quoted),   205 

Killikelly,  Sarah  H. 

(quoted),  203 

King,    James,    of    William, 

2>7A,   375,   376 
King  Philip's  War,  10 
King,  Rufus,  154,  155,  167, 

168,  286 
King,       Rufus,       Life       of 

(quoted),  155 
Kneeland,  Samuel,  81 
Knight,  Charles  (cited),  6 
Know-Nothings,  289 


Labor,    139 
Labor  papers,  220 
Lafayette,  General,  234 
Laffan,  William  M.,  363 
Lamb,  Captain,   124 
Lamb,       Martha       J.       R. 

(quoted),   125,  129 
Law,  Canon  and  Feudal,  104 
Leader,  Cleveland,  334,  335 
Lecky,      William      E.      H. 

(quoted),  117 
Ledger,  Pennsylvania,  134 
Ledger,  Public,  Philadelphia, 

249,    250,    251,    252, 

253 
Lee,  Charles,  94,  95,  133 

Lee,  Henry,  160,  161 
Leisler,   Jacob,   61 
Leonard,  Daniel,  105,  iii 
L'Estrange,  Sir  Roger,  7,  8 
L'Estrange,        Sir        Roger 
(cited),  16,  17 


442 


INDEX 


Lewis,       William       Draper 

(cited),  52 
Leyden,  City  of,  i,  4 
L'Hommedieu,  Stephen,  209 
Libel,  50 
Libel  suits,  329 
Liberal  movement,  330,  344 
Liberal  Republicans,  362 
Liberator,  224,  226,  293 
"Liberty  Boys,"   124 
Liberty  Hall  and  Cincinnati 

Mercury,  209 
Liberty  Party,  91 
Licensing  Act,  8 
Licensor  of  the  press,  6,  7 
Lincoln,  Abraham,  154,  283, 

292,    299,    308,    327, 

338,    355, 
Lincoln's    Works    (quoted), 

317 
Livingston,    Henry    B.,    160 
Livingston,  Philip,  123 
Livingston,  William,  87,  128 
Locke,  John,  25,   iii 
Locke,  Richard  Adams,  245, 

247 
Lodge,  Henry  Cabot,  30 
Lodge,  Henry  Cabot  (cited), 

176,    198 
Log  Cabin,  277 
London,  Papers,  List  of,  28 
London  Chronicle,  83 
Daily  C  our  ant,  145 
Daily  Neivs,  349,  353 
Gazette,   7,   22,   46 
Public  Advertiser,  149 
Spectator,  32 
Times,  175,  307 
Lords  of  Trade,  70,  72 
Lords  Spiritual,  59 


Lords  Temporal,  59 
Lossing,  Benson  J.  (quoted), 

126,  127 
Loudon,  Samuel,  121,  122 
Louis  XIV,  of  France,  yy 
Louisiana,  297 
Louisville      Courier- Journal, 

343 
Journal,  239,  306 

Love  joy,  Elijah,  227,228 

Lovelace,  Governor,  46 

"  Love  Lane,"  193 

Lowell,  James  Russell,  355 

Loyalists,  84,  86,  87,  93,  135, 

142 
Lundy,  Benjamin,  210,  222, 

223,  228 
Luttrell,  Narcissus  (quoted), 

16,  17 
Lying  Gazette,  123 
Lyon,  Matthew,  185,  186 


M 

McClellan,  George  B,,  322 
McClure,   A.    K.    (quoted), 

294,  322 
McClure,  A.  K.,  331,  344 
McDougall,    Alexander,   88, 

89,  90,  121,  124 
"  MTingal,"  82 
McKean,  William  V.,  251 
McMaster,        John        Bach 

(cited),   34,  64,   loi, 

139,    149,    171,    172, 

201,    213,    217,    219, 

223,    254, 
McMaster,       John       Bach 

(quoted),  66,  259 


INDEX 


443 


Macaulay,        Thomas        B. 

(cited),  23 
Madison,    James,    144,    149, 

150,    158,     159,     160, 

161,     162,    178,     183 
Madisonian,        Washington, 

236 
Magazine,  American,  91 
Manumission  Journal,  222 
Marcy,  Governor,  260 
Marshall,  Edward,  380 
Martial  (cited),  2 
Maryland  Gazette,  63,  68 

Journal,  94,  133 
Massachusetts  Centinel,  142, 

143 

Massachusetts  Colony,  Gov- 
ernor, 61 
Gazette,  105,  no,  in 
Massachusetts         Historical 
Collections  (cited),  85 
Historical  Society  Collec- 
tions (cited),  25 
Historical     Society     Pro- 
ceedings (quoted),  183 
Spy,  85,  86,  92,  113,  145, 
176 
Mather,  Cotton,  n,  32 
Mather  family,  29,  30 
Maverick,   Augustus    (quot- 
ed), 285 
Maxwell,  William,  209,  224 
May,    Sir   Thomas    Erskine 

(cited),  3,  6 
Mayflower,  i,  36 
Mayhew,  Jonathan,  102,  103 
Maynard  Case,  364 
Medill,  Joseph,  318,  331,  333, 

347 
Mein,  John,  83,  84 


Mercury,  American  Weekly, 
40,  42,  63 
Charleston,  304,  312 
Cincinnati,  209 
Newport,  66,  93,  119,  133 
New  York,  87,  90 
Weekly,  New  York,   128, 

134 
Portsmouth,  98 

Meredith,  Hugh,  43 

Merriam,  George  S.  (cited), 
328 

Miami  Gazette,  209 

Mill,  John  Stuart,  349 

Miller,  David  C,  221 

Milton,  John,  7,  in 

Minerva,    New    York,    167, 
168 

Missouri  Compromise,  2^ 
Journalism  in,  330 
Gazette,  215 

Mitchell,  Edward  P.  (cited), 
243 

Moniteur    de    la    Loidsiane, 
La,  216 

Monroe,  James,  144,  219,  234 

Montesquieu,  in 

Montgomery,  Governor,  48 

''  Moon  Hoax,"  245 

Morgan,  Edwin  D.,  319 

Morgan,  William,  221 

Morley,  Henry  (cited),  27 

Mormons,  373 

"  Morning  Gun  of  the  Revo- 
lution," 103 

Morning   Post,    New   York, 

243,  273 
Morris,  Chief  Justice,  48 
Morris,  Gouvemeur  (cited), 

57 


444 


INDEX 


Morris,  Gouverneur,  i6i 
Morse,  S.  F.  B.,  250 
Moses,  John  (cited),  214 
Motley,  John   Lothrop   (cit- 
ed), 4 
Murders,  227,  ^^y^ 
Myers,  Gustavus,  340 


N 


Nashville  Gazette,  219 
Nation  (quoted),  266 
Nation,  349 
National  Gazette,  152 

Gazette,  Philadelphia,  161, 

162,  163-165 
Intelligencer    and    Wash- 
ington        Advertiser, 
233.  234,  236,  237 
Intelligencer  (quoted), 3 17 
Journal,    Washington,    D. 

C,  234 
Newpaper,   145 
Navigation  Act,  y2 
Nebraska  Bill,  286 
Negro,  131 

Negro  pubications,  228,  229 
Nelson,  William  (cited),  114 
Nelson,     William     Rockhill, 

356 

Netherlands,  4 

Newark,  New  Jersey,  127, 
128 

Newburyport,  Massachu- 
setts, 86 

Newburyport  ( Massachu- 
setts) Herald,  223 

New  England  Courant,  31- 

34,  44,  68 
Galaxy,  258 


Primer,  12 
"  Newes,"  3 

"  Newes  out  of  Kent,"  3 
"  Newes  out  of  Heaven  and 

Hell,"  3 
New  Hampshire,  331,  337 
New  Hampshire  Gazette,  98, 

119 
New  lersey  Gazette,  128,  129 
New  London  Gazette,  95,  97 
New  London  Summary,  95 
New  Orleans,  first  paper,  297 
Newport    Mercury,   66,    93, 

119.  133 
News-boats,  248 

News-letters,  3,  23,  24 

News-Letter,  Boston,  25,  26, 

^7,  37»  63,  69,  81,  82, 

no 
Newspapers,  '"  Weekly 

Newes,"  the  first  one, 

3 
first    paper    published    on 

American      continent, 

19 

first  daily  in  London,  1702, 
25 

List  of,  in  London,  28 

List  of,  in  1775,  98,  99 

List  of,   in   colonies,    118, 
119 

at  close  of  Revolution,  138 

List  of,  204 

and  pamphlets,  6 
'*  New  Worid,"  151 
New  York  City,  340 

Colony,    Council   minutes, 

46 

Colony,  Governors,  39,  46- 

48 


INDEX 


445 


"  New     York     Documents " 
(cited),  48 

Documentary  History 

(cited),  89 

Harbor  Association,  248 

Newspapers,  63,  64 
New  York  Provisional  Con- 
gress,      Journal      of 
(quoted),  122 

Advocate,  258 

American,  277,  372 

Chronicle,  192 

Citizen,  238 

Commercial       Advertiser, 
167,    244,    258,    262, 

^77^    350 
Courier      and      Enquirer, 

239,    258,    277,    27g, 

293 
Daily  Advertiser,  156,  160 

Daily    Patriotic    Register, 

145 
Enquirer,  258 
Evening  Journal,  299,  372, 

380 
Evening    Post,    68,     150, 

155,      191-193.      197, 
243,    244,    258,    262, 

277,    285,    343,    349, 

356,    362-363 
Evening  Sun,  363 
Evening  World,  363,  364 
Express,  277,  285 
Gazette,      39,      63,      67, 

120,    122,    128,     134, 

149 
Gazette    or    Weekly   Post 

Boy,  91,  92,  93 
Gazetteer,  123,  124 
Globe,  167,  260 


Herald,  245,  249,  256,  277, 
282,    283,    311,    317, 

341 

Independent  Gazetteer, 
149 

Independent  Journal,  149 

Journal,  145,  146 

Journal  or  General  Adver- 
tiser, 89-92 

Journal  of  Commerce,  22/\y 
^77,  285,  322 

Journal  Revived,  92 

Mercury,  87,  90 

Minerva,  167,  168 

Morning  Post,  24^,  27^ 

Packet,  121,  122,  139, 
140 

Sun  (chapter  xviii),  240- 

254 
Sun,  260,  269,   277,   283, 

285,    311,    338,    340, 
362-364 
Times  (chapter  xxi),  282- 

295 
Times,  317,  322,  343 

Trayiscript,  260 

Tribune,  247,  282 

Tribune      (chapter     xx), 

269-281 
Tribune  (quoted),  311 
Tribune,    314,    316,    320, 

322,  337,  338 
Weekly  Journal,  48-50,  64 
Weekly  Mercury,  128,  134 
World,  322,  362,  363,  380, 

381 
New  Yorker,  273 
Nicolay  and  Hay   (quoted), 

322 
Noah,  Mordecai  M.,  258 


446 


INDEX 


"  No  Blind  Guides  Needed," 

7 
Noms   de   plume,    102,    104, 
105,    107,    129,    145, 
151,    162,    166,    168 
North    A^nerican,    Philadel- 
phia, 374 
North  Briton,  89 
Northcliffe,  Lord,  308,  309 
Northern  Journalism,  66 
North,  S.  N.  D.   (cited),  24 
Northern     Spectator,     Ver- 
mont, 271 
Northwest  Territory,  Centi- 

nel  of,  209 
Norton,   Charles  Eliot,  348, 

351 


O 


O'Brien,  Frank  M.  (quoted), 

245,  248 
O'Brien,  Frank  M.   (cited), 

338,  340 
Observator,  8 
Ohservator,  London,  28 
Observer,    Columbia,    South 

Carolina,  234 
St.  Louis,   277 
Ochs,  Adolph  S.,  342,  343 
O'Connor,  Charles,  311 
Official  paper,  234 
Ogden,  Rollo  (cited),  352 
Ohio,  297 

Ohio  Federalist,  210 
Old  South  Writing  School, 

154 
*'  On  to  Richmond,"  338 
Orange,  Prince  of,  61 
Ordinance  of  1787,  216 


Oswald,   Eleazer,    133,    145, 

149 
Otis,  James,   103,   104,   114, 

140 


Packet,  New  York,  121,  122, 

139,  140 
Pennsylvania,     133,     138, 

140,  144 

Paine,  Thomas,  no,  121, 
131,  161 

Palladium  (Frankfort,  Ken- 
tucky), 207 

Pamphlets  and  newspapers, 
6 

Paper  mills,  48,  203 

Papers,  Public,  of  George 
Clinton    (cited),    132, 

133 
Paris  Herald,  341 

Parker,    James,    48,    87-89, 

91,95 
Parks,  William,  6y 

Parton,  James  (cited),  161 

Parton,      James      (quoted), 

257,  274 
Party,  Liberty,  91 

Pater,  Walter  (cited),  379 

Patriot,    Greensboro,    North 

Carolina,  301 
Pellew,     George     (quoted), 

188 
Penn,     Irvine     G.     (cited), 

229 
Penn,  William,  35-38,  62 
Pennsylvania,     Minutes     of 

Provincial        Council 

(cited),  37 


INDEX 


447 


Chronicle,  93 

Colony,  Governor,  42 

''Farmer/'  82 

Gazette,  43,  55,  63,  64,  70, 
80,  133 

Historical  Society  Mem- 
oirs (quoted),  173 

Journal,  67 

Ledger,  134 

Magazine  (quoted),  56 

Magazine,  131 

Packet,  133,  138,  140,  144 

Royal  Gazette,  134 
Penny       papers        (chapter 

xviii),  240-254 
Penny  papers,  260 
Pepys,  30 

"  Peter  Porcupine,"  169,  172 
Philadelphia,  260 
Philadelphia,  Newspapers,  63 

Argus,  187 

Aurora,  170,  171,  i7Z^^7S> 
177,  181,  189,  192, 
194,    239 

Cent,  242,  260 

Daily  Advertiser,  187 

Daily  Transcript,  249 

Evening  Post,  134 

General  Advertiser,  170 

National  Gazette,  161-165 

North  American,  374 

Public  Ledger,  249-253 

TiW^,  331,  344 

Universal     Gazette,     232, 

233 

Philanthropist,  223,  226 

Phillips,  Judge,  51 
Phillips,  Wendell,  293 
Pickering,  Timothy,  180 
Pike,  James  S.  (quoted),  281 


Pilgrims,  I,  5 
Pintard,  John,  160 
Pitt,  William,  168 
Pittsburgh,        Pennsylvania, 
202,  203 
Gazette,  202-204 
Tree  of  Liberty,  203 
Poe,  Edgar  Allan,  274 
Political  Censor,  169 
Political  Progress,  194 
Polk,  James  Knox,  236 
"  Poor  Richard's  Almanac," 

64 

Porcupine's  Gazette,  169 
Portfolio,  188 

Portsmouth     Mercury     and 
Weekly  Advertiser,  98 
Post,  Cincinnati,  227 
St.  Louis,  361,  362 
IVestliche,  St.  Louis,  330 
Evening,   Boston,    64,   69, 

70,  72,  7Z 

Evening,   New   York,   68, 

150,    155,    191,    193, 

197,    243,    244,    343, 

349.    356,    Z(i2,    363 

Evening,  Philadelphia,  134 

Morning,  New  York,  243, 

273 
Post   Boy,   Boston    Weekly, 

68 

London,  28 

Junior,  London,  28 

Weekly,  91,  92,  93 
Post-Dispatch,  St.  Louis,  362 
Postman,  London,  28 
Postmasters,  24,  28,  68 
Post-Office,  138 
Poughkeepsie,     New     York, 
92 


448 


INDEX 


Pray,  Isaac  C.  (quoted), 
258,  264 

"Prayer  of  Twenty  Mil- 
lions," 315 

Prentice,    George    D.,    239, 

306,  343.  348 
Presbyterian,  121 
"  President's  March,"  171 
Priestley,  Joseph,  iii,  168 
Prince  of  Orange,  61 
Printing,  2 

Printing-House  Square,  333 
Printing  Presses  in  America, 

5 
Printing  press.  Demand  for, 

66 

Prohibition,  288 

"  Prospect  Before  Us,"  194 

Protection,  332,  333 

Providence  Gazette,  93,  119 

Journal,  239 

Public  Advertiser,   London, 

149 

Public  Intelligencer,  7 

Public  Ledger,  Philadelphia, 

249-253 
Public     Papers    of     George 

Clinton    (cited),    132, 

133 
Publications,  Whig,  8 
Public  k    Occurances     (Bos- 
ton), 19,  270 
Pulitzer,  Joseph,  331,  342 
Pulitzer,     Joseph      (chapter 
xxvii),  357,  360-369, 
370 

Q 

Quakers,  36,  37-39,  118 
"  Queries,"  94 


Quincy,  Josiah,"^  Jr.,  103,  104, 
106 


R 


Randall,     Henry     Stephens 

(cited),  157 
Randolph,    Thomas     Mann, 

159 
Raymond,    Henry    J.,    239, 

278,    282,    310,    321, 

325-335*  340 
Record,  Congressional,  237 
Reform  papers,  221 
Register,  Indiana,  213 

Sheffield  (England),  232 
Rehearsal  Revived,  London, 

28 
Reid,    Whitelaw,    271,    342, 

345 
Reporter,  Richmond,  194 

Republic,  St.  Louis,  215 
Washington,  237 

Republicans,    166,    168,    170, 

^73^    174,    177,    179, 

194,    327,    330.    334, 

343 
Republican  Advocate,  221 

Chicago,  338 

Cincinnati,  227 

Coshocton,  334 

Journal,  142 

Springfield,  Massachusetts, 

244,    293,    299,    328, 

343 
Reviezv,  London,  25,  28 

Revolution,  French,  170 

Reynolds,  Mrs.,  194 

Rhett,  Robert  Barnwell,  304, 

348 


INDEX 


449 


Rhodes,  James  Ford  (cited), 
64,  loi,  216,  305,  348, 

350,  351,  354 
Richmond     Enquirer,     239, 

303 

Examiner,  194,  312 

Reporter,  194 
Riots,  250 

Ritchie,  Thomas,  237,  239 
Rivington,  James,  123-128 
Robertson's      "  History      of 

America,"   138 
Rogers,  Gamaliel,  79 
Rogers,  James  E.  T.  (cited), 

4 
Roosevelt,     Theodore,     loi, 

192 
Roosevelt,  Theodore  (cited), 

205,  206 
Rousseau,  Jean  Jacques,  161 
Royal  Gasette,  125,  128 
Royal  Pennsylvania  Gazette, 

134 
Royalists,  iii,  123,  125,  127 

Rules,  Editorial,  251-253 
Rush,  Benjamin,  169 
Russell,  Benjamin,  142-144 
Russell,      Charles      Edward 

(cited),  213 
Rutherford,  Livingston  (cit- 
ed), 50 


St.  Louis  Evening  Dispatch, 
362 
Evening  Post,  362 
Observer,  227 
Post,  361 
Post-Dispatch,  362 


Republic,  215 
Westliche  Post,  330 
Sabine,  Lorenzo  (cited),  84, 

93»  94,  119 

San    Francisco    Daily    Eve- 
ning Bulletin,  375 
Herald,  375,  376 

Scharf  &  Westcott  (quoted), 
171,  181 

Schenectady,  Sacking  of,  61 

School   of   Journalism,    360, 
Z^7,  368,  371 

Schoolcraft,  John,  290 

Schouler,  331 

Schouler,      James      (cited), 

^77,  179 
Schurz,  Carl,  2y7,  330,  331, 

344,  361,  362 
Schuyler,  Philip,  155,  197 
Scioto  Gazette,  209 
Scott,  John  Morin,  87 
Scott,  Winfield,  313 
Scroggs,  Chief  Justice,  8,  14, 

16,  17 
Scudder,  Horace  E.  (cited), 

167 
Scull,  John,  202 
Sears,  Isaac,  121,  124 
Seaton,    William    W.,    22,2, 

234,_  ^Z7 
Second  Printing  Press,  5 
Sedgwick,      Theodore,      Jr. 

(cited),   129 
Sedition  Act,   113,   175-178, 

180-183,      185,      187, 

190,  194,  197,  232 
"Sentinal,"  129 
Sentinel,        Fort        Wayne 

(Ind.),  357 


450 


INDEX 


Sergeant,  John  O.,  237 
Serle,    Ambrose,    119,    120, 

134 
Sewall,  Jonathan,  in 

Sewall,  Samuel   (cited),  18, 

21 
Sewall,  Samuel,  25-30 
Seward,        Frederick       W. 

(quoted),  286 
Seward,    William    H.,    275, 

283,    286,    289,    312, 

3^7^  335, 
Seymour,  Horatio,  289,  322 

Sheffield    (England)    Regis- 
ter, 232 
Shepherd,  D.  H.,  273 
Sheridan,     General     Philip, 

323 
Simmons,  Azariah  H.,  248- 

251 

Six  Nations,  70 

Skelton,  Edward  O.  (cited), 

10 
Slave-holding   Press    (chap- 
ter xxii),  295-303 
Small-pox,  32 

Smith,  Edward  (cited),  168 
Smith,  J.  Allen  (quoted),  35 
Smith,     Samuel     Harrison, 

232,  233 
Smith,  T.  C.  (cited),  302 
Smith,  William,  51,  71,  87 
"  Sons  of  Liberty,"  121,  124 
South  Carolina  Gazette,  63, 

Southern  journalism,  66 
Sower,  68 
Spanish  type,  374 
Sparks,   Jared    (cited),    78; 
(quoted),  161 


Spectator,  London,  32 

Washington,  236 
Springfield    (Massachusetts) 
Republican,  244,  293, 

299.  328,  343 
Spy,  Massachusetts,  85,  86, 

92,  113,  145,  176 
Stamford    Railroad   Wreck, 

381,  382 
Stamp  Act,  67,  68,  92,  98, 

106,  III 
Stanton,  Secretary,  338 
Star,  California,  373,  374 
Star,  Kansas  City,  356 
Stark  County,  Ohio,  334 
State  Trials  (quoted),  16,  17 
**  Statesmen  of  the  Revolu- 
tion," 100,  104 
Steele,  Richard,  2y,  44,  336 
Stenography,  143,  233 
Stephen,     Sir    James     Fitz- 

James  (cited),  52 
Stephens,  Alexander  H.,  323 
Stephens,  David  H.  (cited), 

28 
Stephenson,  N.  W.  (quoted), 

300 
Sterrett,  Joseph  M.,  272 
Stevens,  Benjamin  F.  (quot- 
ed), 121 
Stille,       Charles       Janeway 

(cited),   151 
Stone,  William  L.,  258,  262, 

350 
"Story  of  the  Sun"  (cited), 

338,  340 
Stout,  Elihu,  212 
Street,     Joseph     Montford, 

207,  208 
"  Sugar  Act,"  72 


INDEX 


451 


Summary,  New  London,  95 
Sumner,     Senator     Charles, 

314 
Sun,  Baltimore,  250,  251,  253 
Evening,  New  York,  363 
N-ew  York  ( chapter  xviii), 

24(^254 
New  York,  260,  269,  2yy, 
2Ss,    285,    311,    338, 
340,  362-364 
Sunhury    and    Northumber- 
land Gazette,  182 
Supplement,  London,  28 
Swain,  William  M.,  248-251 
Swift,  Dean,  27,  31 


Talleyrand,  177 
Tammany  Hall,  146,  324 
Tatler,  London,  28 
Taylor,  Zachary,  22,y 
Telegraph,  Morse,  250 

United  States,  234 
Thatcher,  Oxenbridge,  103 
Third  Estate,  59 
Thomas,  Isaiah,  65,  81,  84, 

85*  95,  99,   113,   134, 
142,  145 
Thompson,     Harbor-master, 

193 

Thompson,  Nathaniel,  13 

Thwaites,       Reuben       Gold 

(cited),  204,  215 
Tilden,  S.  J.,  356 
"  Times      that      try      men's 

souls,"  132 
Times,  Boston,  253 
London,  175,  307 
New  York  (chapter  xxi), 
282-295,  317,  322,  343 


Philadelphia,  331,  344 
Timothy,  Lewis,  65 
Tories,   40,   72,  84,   86,   87, 
93,  117,  118,  121,  122, 

129,  134 
Trade,  Lords  of,  70,  y2 
Transcript,  New  York,  260 

Daily,  Philadelphia,  249 
Tree  of  Liberty,  203 
Tribune,  Chicago,  215,  318, 

331,  333,  343 
Detroit,  215 

New  York,  247,  269-281, 

282,    311,    314,    7,2,2, 

2>Z7,    338 
New  York  (quoted),  316, 
320 
Trumbull,  John,  96,  97 
Trumbull,  John  (cited),  82 
Tudor,  William,  Jr.  (cited), 

104 
Tweed,    William    M.,    340, 

342,  356 
"  Twenty-four  Queries,"  16 
"  Twenty     Years     in     Con- 
gress"  (cited),  333 
Tyler,  John,  236,  2yy 
Tyler,   Moses   Coit    (cited), 

93,  97,  117 
Typothetae,  65 

U 

Ulster  County,   New   York, 

123 
Union,     Washington,     22,6, 

237 
United  States,  Gazette  of  the, 

152,    154,    156,    160, 

167 

Telegraph,  234 


452 


INDEX 


Universal  Gazette,  Philadel- 
phia, 232,  233 
Universal  Instructor,  43 

V 

Van  Buren,  Martin,  225,  236, 

260 
Van  Dam,  Rip,  48 
Van  Dyke,  Henry,  340 
Venable,    W.    F.    (quoted), 

202,  306 
Vermont  Journal,  185 
Vicksburg  Whig,  301 
Vigilance  Committee,  376 
Villard,     Oswald     Garrison, 

266 
Virginia  Gazette,  64,  67 
journalism,  66,  67 
Resolutions,  184 
Voltaire  (cited),  yy 

W 

Walker,  Francis  A.,  351 
Walker,  Francis  A.  (cited), 

138 

Wallace,  John  William  (cit- 
ed), 46 
Walpole,  Sir  Robert,  70 
"War  of  argument,"  117 
Warden,  142 

Warren,  Joseph,  103,  104 
Washington  City,  337 
Washington,  George,  80,  94, 
95,  116,  124,  131,  134, 
144,     152,    163,     164, 
166-168,         172-174, 
187,  188,  206,  296 
Washington  Advertiser,  233 
Congressional  Globe,  235- 


Federalist,  233 

George,       Writings       of 
(quoted),  188 

Globe,  235-237 

Madisonian,  236 

National  Intelligencer,  233, 
234,  236,  237 

National  Journal,  234 

Republic,  237 

Spectator,  236 

Union,  236,  237 
Watch  Tozver,  87 
Watkins,  Hezekiah,  91 
Watterson,  Henry,  306,  343, 

344 

Webb,  James  Watson,  239, 

246,    247,    258,  261, 

263,    279,    193,  312, 

335 
Webster,    Daniel,    212,    216, 
217,    233,    234,    237, 

239 

Webster,  Noah,  167 

Weed,  Thurlow,  221,  239. 
274,  275,  280,  283, 
293.  310,  312,  317. 
325-335.  347 

Weekly  Advertiser,  105 

Advertiser,  Boston,  138 

Portsmouth,  98 
Journal,    New    York,   48- 

50,  64 
Nezv  York,  128,  134 
Mercury,  American,  63 
"  Weekly  Newes,"  3 
Weekly  Post  Boy,  91-93 

Boston,  68 
Welcome,  36 

Wells,  William  Vincent  (cit- 
ed), 79,  102 


INDEX 


453 


Wendell,     Bafrett     (cited), 

225,  226 
Western  Spy  and  Hamilton 
Gazette,  209 
Miami  Gazette,  209 
Western  World,  207,  208 
Westliche   Post,    St.    Louis, 

330 
Weyman,  William,  91 

Wharton,  Francis  (quoted), 

179 
Wharton  and  Galloway,  93 

Whigs,  8,  40,  67,  72,  84,  87, 

93,  118,  119,  121,  123, 

128,    242,    269,    273, 

277,  279,  334 

Whig,  American,  87 
Cincinnati,  227 
Coshocton,  334 
Vicksburg,  301 

Whig  Club,  87 

Whig  Club,  Baltimore,  94 

Whig  Journalists,  13 

Whiskey  Insurrection,  203 

Whisperer,  London,  28 

White,  Horace,  331 

White,  Pliny  H.  (quoted), 
186 

Wilkes,  John,  89 

Wilkes-Barre  (Pennsylva- 
nia), Wyoming  Her- 
ald, 272 

William,    James    King,    of, 

374-376 

William  and  Mary,  of  Eng- 
land, 61 

Williams,  Roger,  9 

Williamsburg  (Virginia) 
Newspapers,  64 


Wilson,     Henry     (quoted), 

304 
Wilson,  James  H.  (quoted), 

280 
Wilson,      James      Harrison 

(cited),  339 
Wilson,    Rufus    R.    (cited), 

237 
Winsor,  Justin    (cited),  82, 

96,  103,  112 
Winthrop,  Governor,  9 
Wise,  Henry  A.,  235,  298 
Wise,  Jennings,  303 
Witchcraft,  9 
Wolcott,  Oliver,  187,  188 
Women's  Rights,  332 
Wood,  Fernando,  311 
Wood,  John,  207,  208 
Worcester   ( Massachusetts  ) , 

Workingmans  Gazette,  220 
World,  Evening,  New  York, 

363,  364 
World,  New  York,  322,  362, 

363,  380,  381 
Wyoming    Herald,    Wilkes- 
Barre,    Pennsylvania, 

2^2 

X 

"  X.  Y.  Z."  Dispatches,  177 
Y 

"  Yellow  press,"  370 


Zenger,  John  Peter,  15,  38, 
48-58,  70,  71,  98,  141, 
I79>  197,  198,  298 

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